Chronicle of the trials and triumphs of the Quarterlin(g) clan in Dragon Pass

[Kalle]

I started up King of Dragon Pass again. It's still great, and I found myself unable to stop playing. With all the HoI2 threads going on I figured, what the hell, lets make this a KoDP chronicle.

In case you're wondering "what the hell is KoDP?", it's an odd strategy game where you lead a clan of fantasy vikings who have been driven from their home and settle in the dangerous Dragon pass. There's cattle raiding, attacks by strange beasts, divine curses, feuds, trading and a ton of events that bring it all to life.

Anyway, lets get started. I opted not to pick my clan background, letting the game randomise it for me. I can't really complain about the end result.



As a balanced clan we don't specialise in either raiding or farming so I can go either way when it suits me. Aside from that the biggest impact of the background is the ancestral enemies, in this case Trolls, who can be pretty nasty. On the other hand, so are all the other ancestral enemies. The ancestor's attitudes towards dragons and strangers are also likely to come up since the clan is expected to follow the ancestor's example.

It's important to keep in mind that both ancestor spirits and gods are very tangible in this game and at the very least you don't want to antagonise them. Honour them and you will be rewarded.

Next up is the first years allocation of magic.



I start with seven points of magic. I can use these to conduct rituals that give me better chances of success at actions that fall in the ten categories here. This year I'll allocate one point to health to avert diseases and keep the people healthier, one to trade taking the omens about good trade into account I want to maximise my chances of success here, one to war which never hurts since conflict is likely whether I seek it out or not, and two to mysteries which will increase the chances of the gods teaching the tribe rituals or lore when offered sacrifices. I intend to do a lot of this.

Two points in reserve, you never know when they will be needed.

With that out of the way, here's a look at the mapped areas of Dragon pass.



Names in red are clans we're feuding with. Names in blue are allies. The redder a name is, the worse relations we have with them, and vice versa with blue. The Wildcat clan to our north are our allies. To the northwest are the Vanstali and to the south the Old Owl clan who we are feuding with. More enemies than allies is a bad thing, we can either appease them or beat them down. I'm opting for the latter course.

For the very first turn I swap out half the clan ring of leaders. Those are the seven portraits at the bottom of the screen. The starting ring did not have a representative from the healing goddess Chalana Arroy, nor a representative of the Trickster god Eurmal. You can't have all the gods represented on the ring but it's a good idea to have as many as possible represented. Certain event options are only available if you have a representative from a specific god in your ring and they also serve as advisors on all your decisions so having many different perspectives available is a good thing.

They also have different stats and the original ring was not made up of the best candidates I noticed.

More to follow...

[Warren]

This is awesome. I loved to play Dragon's Pass. But I always failed spectacularly. I never really grocked the Gods/Rituals part. Maybe I can actually learn how I should have played it!

[tiohn]

Fuck YES.

[Beefeater1980]

Posting an AAR of this game when it's virtually impossible to obtain skirts the borders of cruel and unusual punishment. Any chance this is going to end up on Good Old Games?

[MythicalMino]

I just bought this (and just received it in the mail yesterday). Finally, after several years of reading about it, and doing the demo over and over again. This is a thread that I will be watching....

Chris

[Kalle]

Well, good thing I saved those two points of magic because first thing during planting season I recieved an emissary from the Woodpecker clan who we owed a favour to. He wanted magic and we were obliged to give him ours. Since we only had a measly two points we had to give him that which was less than customary. Being cheap with favours is not a reputation you want but there was little else I could do since he insisted on magic despite my attempts to placate him with cows and goods.

I also recruited four new weaponthanes among the farmers, bringing their number up to 14, with the aim of going on a cattle raid once the planting season was over. I also built a watch tower, to get some warning in case another clan got the same idea and tried to raid us.

During the latter half of Fire season (five seasons, Fire comes after Sea, which is planting) I sent a large group of weaponthanes and footmen to steal some Vanstali cattle. Their scouts spotted them however and battle was joined.



Not good. Losing weaponthanes is expensive, and the clan loses prestige too.

However, it turns out our luck wasn't all that bad after all. The season after the Vanstali sent an emissary demanding ransom for two of our weaponthanes. turns out they weren't as dead as we thought. Now normally I'd probably bargain but a feud is a feud and the best way to answer them is with force.



I sent the largest war party I could to the Vanstali lands and stole away three of their men. Hostages were exchanged and I had my valuable fighting men returned to me without the loss of a single cow.

With harvest coming up I gave offerings to Barntar the plowman and he granted the clan knowledge of his Vigor ritual which lets farmers work their fields with more, errm, vigor. To honour him and to properly maintain his rituals the clan built a small shrine out in the farmlands dedicated to him. This way we can be assured of his constant blessings.

As the harvest season makes way for the Dark season of winter I recruit more weaponthanes, increasing their number to 17.

In the middle of the winter storms suddenly sunlight breaks through for a couple of hours and a rainbow touches down on our fields. Now this is a very good omen, the question is how to best exploit it.



Raiding in the middle of winter is not something I'm keen on, and we have no magic left to support a raid either. If I go for trade opportunites that will last me possibly several years which can be very useful, on the other hand peace with an unfriendly clan will be a tangible benefit right now. Thanking the gods isn't enough of a benefit. They already blessed me, I don't need discount offerings for the rest of the year.

I'll settle for making friends. The Osgosi, known for their fine horses, pledge friendship.

It's Storm season, traditionally the second raiding season of the year when the winter snows melt and the passes become clear again. Even so, I think I've had enough raiding for this year. We'll sacrifice to the gods for the future welfare of the clan

While we're busy praying the Vanstali sneak up and steal away 22 heads of cattle. The filthy dogs, they'll pay.

Since the best cure for sickness is prevention we build a shrine to Chalana Arroy now that she has made known the proper rituals that will ward it off.



It has been a decent year. The many sacrifices to the gods have taken their toll on our cattle, as did the cattle raid, but we've grown more than enough food . We have two new shrines that should help keep our people healthy and in good harvests, and a watch tower to keep an eye out for raiders. Hopefully the watchmen have learnt not to sleep on the job.

[Kalle]

Oh, I almost forgot, a man and a woman came by and offered to trade us a magic item they had "found" for forty heads of cattle. I bargained them down to 30. It's quite likely stolen from somewhere, but while we have it it increase our crop yields. If someone comes round complaining we might have to give it back.

[Jasper Phillips]

Nice choice Kalle! I was just thinking about digging this out again myself.

I'm curious to see how you handle the early economy, as that always seems to be the key to whether you do well. I never was able to beat hard, and always wondered if there was some angle I missed.

What sort of stat layout did you get on your Clan Circle?


Oh, and have fun with those Trolls! As I recall they're substantially nastier than some of the other enemies.

[Jason Lutes]

Shoot, it looks like you kicked Hendrick out of your clan ring. Everyone who worked on KoDP appears in the game as a clan leader, and Hendrick was me!

Nice AAR so far.

[Damien Neil]

Damnit. Reading this got me interested in pulling out the game again--except now I realize that it doesn't work on Intel Macs.

Bah! Bah, I say!

[Dave Markell]

Originally Posted by Kalle

In case you're wondering "what the hell is KoDP?", it's an odd strategy game where you lead a clan of fantasy vikings who have been driven from their home and settle in the dangerous Dragon pass.

Well, they're not exactly vikings. :-) They're followers of the Orlanthi pantheon in the world used by RuneQuest, one of my all time favorite PnP RPG's. While they're a bit barbaric, they don't really resemble vikings all that much. And the Dragon Pass area is far and away the most interesting part of that whole fantasy world, so it's a great setting for a game. I never did manage to play it when it was released. Wonder how hard it is to find now? Off to google...

[Dave Markell]

Well, they do still sell it at www.a-sharp.com, but I'm surprised to see it's still $20 and there's no download option. I may wait a bit, until my current gaming backlog is cleared.

[malkav11]

Originally Posted by Dave Markell

Well, they're not exactly vikings. :-) They're followers of the Orlanthi pantheon in the world used by RuneQuest, one of my all time favorite PnP RPG's. While they're a bit barbaric, they don't really resemble vikings all that much. And the Dragon Pass area is far and away the most interesting part of that whole fantasy world, so it's a great setting for a game. I never did manage to play it when it was released. Wonder how hard it is to find now? Off to google...

How hard to find? Very.

[Tyjenks]

Originally Posted by Dave Markell

Well, they do still sell it at www.a-sharp.com, but I'm surprised to see it's still $20 and there's no download option. I may wait a bit, until my current gaming backlog is cleared.

I have read in a couple of places that some code changes would be required to make it downloadable and, for whatever reason, the developers cannot get that done. Manifesto Games attempted to get it when they were in business.

I have done a little search myself and come up empty, short of having A-Sharp burn me a copy and send it to me at their earliest convenience.

[Jab2565]

Are there any issues playing this on newer computers with Win XP?

[Thrag]

I just got inspired to dig up my CD and install. I started up a game, but unfortunately it seems if I click the war or trade screens the game freezes up. Probably because I'm running vista. I did grab the 1.7 patch. I even tried running under xp, 98, and 95 compatibility modes to no avail.

Edit: After a reinstall and dusting the disc, it seems to work!

[Lh'owon]

Do keep this up, I've enjoyed the AAR immensely so far. I love this type of game. 90% of my enjoyment is imagination, but in the best possible way.

[MythicalMino]

I have the game (just recieved from ebay...still wrapped big box with manual). I have Vista...and the game seems to run perfectly fine....

[Kalle]

As the year starts I have 14 points (!) of magic to allocate. I wonder why I got twice as many points this year, but I don't know the game well enough to answer.

The omens predict a bad year for the crops, and possibly a lack of rain too. With our temple to Orlanth we already have the blessing of rain, but to be safe I put two points of magic into crops. If the clan starves we're in deep shit.

I put two points in mysteries to aid our sacrifices again this year, another two in diplomacy since I'd like to get some more allies, and two more in war since the Vanstali are gonna pay for their raiding. With that we have six points left which should see me through the year.

Now what is this?



The duckmen are one of Dragon Pass' stranger races. Still, they act like Orlanthi and follow Orlanthi customs more or less so I don't want to be overly disrespectful. Besides, they might look puny but attacking them on their own ground is risky and we don't know what magic they have or what other allies they can call upon. Demanding food in tribute seems like the best option.

The Slapfoot Duck tribe pledges to give us enough food to feed 50 men for a year at harvest time.

Huh, looks like not all ducks were pleased with having to pay us tribute.



We demanded 19 bushels of grain in compensation for the barn, in accordance with Orlanthi laws and tradition and well within our rights. The cravenly ducks who call themselves Orlanthi refused however, and the planting season is not the time for punitive raids. We will remember this insult however.

As Fire season comes around the clan prepares to raid the Vanstali. We manage to steal away 32 heads of cattle without them noticing us. Cries to avenge ourselves on the Slapfoot Ducks are being heard but ultimately we cannot afford a feud with the ducks, even if they are puny. As the warriors return, so does our prospective trading caravan from the Osgosi far to the south. We had hoped to set up a trade route but though the caravan turned a small profit the Osgosi were reluctant to commit to steady trade.

Flush from the success of the raid, our weaponthanes must have slacked off on their patrols because the Grey Fox clan managed to sneak by all our scouts with a full raiding party.



The clan hastily prepares sacrifices to Orlanth for luck and our defenders attempt to maneuver into better position to drive off the invaders. Two points of magic are spent to reinforce our defences and blast the damn Foxes from their saddles.



Inganna, a warriorwoman of Vinga, lead the defences and her savage counterattack helped win the short, nasty battle. Three of the enemy weaponthanes lay dead and six more escaped though wounded. A dozen enemy footmen were also slain, and twice that number wounded, and our only loss was one footman and a handful of wounded men. As they hurried to flee the field we seized six fine horses and praised Orlanth for our victory.

[Brian Rucker]

One of my favorite games. Since I'm too busy to play myself right now it's great living vicariously through your posts.

[Kalle]

No sooner have we finished clearing our fields of dead Foxes when another raiding party is spotted. Again our scouts have provided no warning, and we are outnumbered.



Using the same tactics as with the foxes the Vanstali charge into a trap.



Salinarg attempts to shoot down the Vanstali heroquester in midair, but the Vanstali air spirites protect him from harm and he manages to kill two of our weaponthanes and injure three others before we can drive off the raiders. In their hurry to escape they leave some horses behind, but it is little compensation for the clansmen who had died.

It is clear that we must build up better defenses to protect home and hearth from raiding scum. We don't have enough goods to afford to build a proper palisade yet, so trading is in order. In the meantime we need to train more weaponthanes.

The Grey Foxes, having been turned back by our brave warriors, are now looking for weaker prey. A raid does not make for a feud. Weak clans will not survive in Dragon Pass and it is only right that the stronger clans take what they can from them.



That said, the Stag Hearth clan has been friendly towards us and we have no cause to make them resent us for letting raiders cross our borders freely. The Foxes are turned away.

With that gesture we also hope to secure the friendship of the Stag Hearths, enough for an alliance hopefully. Gifting them with five fine horses we ask them to join us in alliance so that we may overcome our foes together. Janstan, chieftain of the Stag Hearths agrees and we drink to Orlanth in celebration. Sadly good news are tempered with bad.

As the Dark season of winter settles it's clear that the omened bad harvest came to pass and we won't have enough food to feed our clan the coming year. We need to call in favours or trade. We have many fine horses that should fetch a good price, it's best to save favours for emergencies. The ducks, in spite of their defiant barn-burning, did come through and deliver us the food they had pledged. This will ease our burdens a bit and though relations between us are strained it might be best to try to better our relations.

In preparation for next year the carls clear out some of the wildlands and set aside more land for pastures and farmland. We have more than enough Carls to tend our farmlands but we are lacking in oxen to pull our ploughs. A shrine to Uralda the cow mother might be in order. The cost to properly maintain and venerate so many temples and shrines might be too much of a burden for our small clan at the moment though.

Having only lived on our Tula for two years the lands around us are still unknown to a great extent and Voskandora, warrior under Vinga the adventuress, has asked permission of the ring to explore the wildlands around our tula. Taking five weaponthanes and a dozen footmen with her they brave the snows and find a secluded valley filled with old bones and ivory teeth which will sureley benefit our craftsmen.

Sadly they were not the only ones braving the snows.



Grave accusations though spirits, even ones as powerful as the rock spirit of theirs, are not infallible. The clan ring ordered a divination to ask the gods for guidance and they clearly showed that Yanioth was innocent. Our attempts to convince the Tree Brothers of this were not very successful however, though they grudgingly admitted that they needed more evidence before they could press their claim. The last word on this matter is not yet said however, and the rock spirit of theirs make their warriors a fearsome threat.

[Kalle]

As the snows melt, we raid the Vanstali with aid from our Wildcat allies.



A great success!

But it seems we are never allowed to enjoy our successes this year, for when the raiders return home our clan regalia is gone. A grievous blow to the clan's reputation and to our magic.



Salinarg is sent off with all 22 of our weaponthanes for three seasons to hunt down our regalia. As much as the blow hurts the clan, we need him and our weaponthanes all back before the season of Fire starts and the clans go raiding again.

With our thanes gone the Tree Brothers steal 18 heads of cattle from us. A loss we'll have to take in stride.

The year ends. Our food supplies from last year helped us through our bad harvest, other than that, the clans prospects are looking good. We are more than holding our own. If we get a decent harvest this year and, Orlanth be praised, find our lost regalia we can make a bigger name for ourselves.

The one concern I have is that there isn't one noble who follows Eurmal the Trickster in the entire clan. A trickster on the ring is very useful and would help us go on a sacred heroquest in the realm of the gods. A succesful heroquest would give us much prestige and possibly other rewards as well.

[Kalle]

Oh, and Jason, sorry for booting you off the clan ring but while you were very good at both tending crops and managing animals as could be expected of a follower of Barntar you simply didn't excel in either field and the clan ring needs the very best.

[shang]

Thanks for the thread Kalle! I really love this game, but I have never been any good at it. I hope I can still find my disc somewhere, as your story already has some excellent tips that I could put to use.

[Jason Lutes]

Originally Posted by Kalle

Oh, and Jason, sorry for booting you off the clan ring but while you were very good at both tending crops and managing animals as could be expected of a follower of Barntar you simply didn't excel in either field and the clan ring needs the very best.

It's like a simulation of my real life.

[Kalle]

With our clan regalia gone our reputation amongst the clans of Dragon Pass has fallen. The gods and ancestors only see fit to grant us one point of magic for the year in light of this and though it will be assigned to war, we should call in a favour for magic so that we can defend ourselves during the year.

Planting season is uneventful. Three suitors, all from different clans, turn up seeking the marriage of one of the clan's women. Orldag of the Eagle clan is picked by the clan ring despite the protests of the would-be bride. Orldag offered to tell us secret lore of the gods and our relations with the Eagle clan needed improvement.

As fire season comes round there is still no word from the party sent to discover our missing regalia and the ring starts to worry. Worse than that, the clan is left without thanes to patrol the tula. Worried clan members give formal complaint to the ring and worthy candidates, eight men in all, are given the rank of thane while we wait for our missing warriors to return.

Food supplies are running low, trading horses for food gave us a temporary respite but a favour might have to be called in as there are still some weeks left before harvest.


As we send out another trading party to the Slapfoot Ducks who seem to have much food we are raided by the rangdani tribe.

Though we only have three thanes at hand and half as many foot troops as the rangdani we manage to set a trap for them.



Offir, healer of the ring, rushed forward to heal our war leader and emboldened by his courage our hard-pressed troops helped save Dastandros from the battlefield. The raiders managed to reach our tula however and made off with cows and goods.

Soon after Horse Nomads from outside the pass raided us. Again we were hit hard and they made off with 16 precious horses and five captives, slaves no doubt.

Salinarg returned, too late to help against the raiders and with none of our regalia, but he did have knowledge of the Horse Nomads. Followers of Yelm, the Bad Emperor and enemy of Orlanth, the come from the West to raid wielding powerful fire magics.

With 30 weaponthanes now in our clan we have more than enough men to avenge our raids on nearby clans, and the harvest looks good enough to carry us through the next year. It has been a bad year so far, but we can still make an impact.

Ring member Minara is sent off to the Six Brothers clan to trade some of our cattle for goods. We need more goods to maintain our temples and keep our now large number of thanes in service and if we don't do it now we might not have the chance when the snows come.

The Antorling tribe to our north now seeks friendship and bears gifts looking for an alliance. Having them as allies against the hated Vanstali will be a great boon for our Storm season raids.

(Seasons: Sea - planting, Fire - Raiding, Earth - Harvesting, Dark - Can't move from the Tula for snows, most likely, Storm - Raiding)

With the snows we explore more of the tula, finding precious stones our crafters can turn into amulets. With many wounded men still in the tula we sacrifice some of our newly traded goods to Chalana Arroy

As the clan gathers round the fires to ward off the dark a strange party arrives at the tula.



A Humakti Deathlord on a heroquest is definitely not one to be taken lightly, duck or not, and a challenge to the death is likely to end with even the finest of our warriors slain. He is potentially a valuable ally, and a fight to first blood seems like the best option, but I don't want to insult him either.

Heorl, an Orlanthi champion and a truly excellent warrior takes up the challenge. Both warriors face eachother and as one their blades move. First blood strikes Heorl's head off his shoulders while his sword cuts deep into the Humakti's chest. Both warriors die, and as they carry his body away the deathlord's companions remark that he must have had a holy gift to kill the next man to challenge him to first blood.

As Storm season comes round we raid the rangdani in retaliation. Despite greatly outnumbering them and outmaneuvring them an Urox berserker wreaks havoc among our troops and we are unable to stop him. The raid is aborted. A second raid planned against the Vanstali is aborted before it even begins as harsh weather overtakes our men and force them back to the tula.

The Gray foxes raid our cattle but we spot them and overtake them, killing many. Worse, the Vanstali raid us and burn our steads. Despite outnumbering them, their magic is stronger than ours and we are worse to give up the battle, letting them make off with cattle and horses.

The year ends in ignomy and our reputation is surely suffering. We must fight and reclaim our rightful place among the clans if we are to survive the next year.

[peacedog]

Nice job Kalle. I loved having a trickster on the ring - they bring a lot to the table (Though not always good long term solutions).

[Veefy]

So this game gives you the chance to pwn Howard the Duck? Man I missed out by not getting into pc gaming till late 2000.

[peacedog]

Originally Posted by Veefy

So this game gives you the chance to pwn Howard the Duck?

While raiding the Duckmen can produce nice short term gains, it can also lead to other consequences. Unfortunate consequences.

[Kalle]

With the new year we assign two points of magic to herds to ward off a possible omen of disease amongst our pigs and to increase our number of cattle, two points to war, to reclaim what is ours, and one point to trading, to get more trade goods. That leaves us with 3 points of magic for the year.

The stones we found near the tula seem to have caught the interest of a Six Brothers trader. He offers us 40 heads of cattle in exchange for them. We tried to bind them to a long term trade agreement but they were not interested and the negotiations resulted in naught.

Another trader from our allies in the Wildcat clan offered to buy Esra's basket, one of our Artifacts, for 40 cows worth of goods. While tempting we are already on good terms with the Wildcats and the basket is surely worth more. After some lengthy bargaining we settled on 51 cows worth of goods. Less than what it's worth, probably, but the clan is poor.

Our first raid against the Vanstali goes poorly, yet again. though we kill and wound a number of them for no losses of our own we are not able to bring home any plunder. A second raid against the Rangdani achieved the same result. We suffered no casualties, but neither did we recieve any plunder.



While harvesting our fields our farmers discovered a wondrous skeleton, akin to the ancient dragons. We traded it away for a good price, and used some of the profit to buy a spirt fetch from a pair of wandering spirit talkers. The fetch will act as a repository of magic for when we need it.

In the middle of winter we see another raid from the Horsespawn of the west. Luckily our patrols spot them and the entire clan is ready to face them.



Outflanking them we struck a great blow, killing 20 of them and injuring 60 more for the loss of just three clansmen. 50 horses were our spoils and more than that, our clan has showed that we are no weaklings. Following up this great victory, a small party snuck out among the snowy mountains to raid the Vanstali herds. 37 cows were brought back to the tula and our luck might just be turning. When Storm season comes we will fall upon the Vanstali with swords and axes and burn and plunder.

The first raid of Storm season was yet another bloody failure. Many enemies fell, but we were unable to press home our advantage and return with plunder. The Vanstali tried a cattle raid in return but we drove them off emptyhanded.

Our second raid of the season turned out better. With the help of the Wildcat clan we evaded their patrols and burned two of their steads to force battle. As the bewildered Vanstali charged we led them into a bloody trap where we butchered them leaving us free to burn more steads and escape with 19 cows and 8 horses, all without a single Quarterling casualty.



We are once again a strong clan, and we have proved ourselves in the eyes of our gods and ancestors.