RIVER OATH: A STRATEGY GUIDE FOR NEW PLAYERS
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This guide is for your first few campaigns. It assumes you know how to give
a task (choose a place, press Enter, pick the task and who does it); if not,
start with the player's guide (PLAYER.txt, or H in the game). All the numbers here are the game's own.

THE SHORT VERSION
-----------------

  - Feed the band first. Keep at least three months of rice in hand.
  - Hold more places. Every place you hold gives you one more task a
    month.
  - Do good upstream. Tales flow downstream every month, so a kindness
    done high on the river reaches the most towns.
  - Mend a dike or two every year. Dikes fall about 15 points a year; the
    ending depends on them.
  - Never send your leader to steal. A leader caught is the end of the
    band.
  - Pick one way to win early, and point everything at it.

THE FIRST YEAR
--------------

The opening months decide how fast you grow. A good order of things:

  - Month 1. Look at your band (C) and your place (P). Note who has which
    talents: an Engineer for dikes, a Gossip for tales, a Forger or anyone
    with Craft 5 or more for evidence, a Speaker for recruiting, a
    Drillmaster for training.
  - Rice. Upkeep is 1 rice for every 10 men (or part of 10) and 1 for each
    person; the band panel shows it as Upkeep a month. Gathering gives
    Might x 4 rice, half that in winter, and half as much again at fishing
    places in spring and summer, so a strong gatherer at a fishing place
    in spring is your best food source. The harvest (your places' rice)
    comes at the end of month 9 and silver at the end of month 12, so the
    first winter and spring are the hungry time.
  - Men. Raise men where you hold the place (or have goodwill 40): up to
    Heart x 3 men a task, 1 silver each, and no more than Might x 10 in
    one crew. Then Train: drill rises by Might + Heart (double for a
    Drillmaster) and every 20 points of drill counts like a point of Might
    in battle.
  - Boats. Every traveller on the river needs a boat. Build a boat (Craft
    4, 10 silver) early; a band without boats is stuck on the roads.
  - People. Wanderers wait in many places. Recruit costs 5 silver whether
    or not it works; the chance is 20 + 5 x Heart + a quarter of the
    goodwill there (+10 for a Speaker), so send your best Heart and
    recruit where people already like you. Scout shows who is in the
    places next door.
  - Places. At the month's end you take any empty place where only your
    band has people, there is no garrison, and goodwill toward you is 30
    or more. A raid on a place nobody defends takes it at once. Each new
    place is a new task every month, more yield at harvest, and somewhere
    to raise men.

GOODWILL AND TALES
------------------

Goodwill (0 to 100) is a place's base opinion plus 5 for each point of
strength of your good tales told there, minus 5 for each point of bad ones.
You need it to take places (30), raise men away from home (40), expose an
official (60) and petition the court (50 in 8 places).

  * Help the town raises the base by 1 for each 10 rice or silver (10 at
    most) and starts a tale of kindness with strength 1 + amount / 30, up
    to 3. 60 is the sweet spot: goodwill +6 and a strength-3 tale. Where
    people are hungry (spring, near Grain Hill) help counts double and the
    tale is one stronger.
  * Repairing a dike also starts a strength-2 kindness tale, so it is
    never wasted.
  * Tales travel: one link downstream every month, and upstream or by road
    only every second month. They lose 1 strength every 3 links and every
    6 months. So a deed at Cloudgate Gorge or Willow Spring is heard all
    the way down the river; a deed at the Tide Gate stays at the Tide
    Gate.
  * Bad tales: putting a prisoner to death and breaking a pact make tales
    of cruelty. The Intendant sends slander against whichever band people
    like best, and the Tolls Supervisor quietly silences good tales near
    her gate. A Gossip can answer with tales of your own, or silence a bad
    one.
  * The Tales view (V) colours every place by its goodwill toward you: red
    under 30, gold to 59, green 60 and up.

THE DIKES
---------

Each dike loses 1 a month and 2 in summer, about 15 a year (more on Hard).
In the Great Flood (month 7 of year 20) every dike below 50 breaks; in any
summer storm a dike below 20 may break. A broken dike floods its place and
the next one downstream: goodwill there falls, the holding band loses rice,
and men drown.

  * A repair adds rice / 5 + Might, doubled for an Engineer. Wen Shuyi
    (Might 5, Engineer) with 50 rice adds 30.
  * One good repair per dike per year keeps it level. Six dikes, so plan
    about one repair every two months.
  * Your ending depends on the dikes: win with the average at 60 or more
    and it is The River Kept; otherwise A Hollow Pardon. The Dikes view (V
    twice) shows them all.

CHOOSING HOW TO WIN
-------------------

  Way | What you need | Suits
  Petition:
      3 items of evidence, goodwill 50 or more in 8 places, your leader
      at Jade Lock
      Bands with a good thief (Craft 5+, ideally a Forger) and a lot of
      kindness: Tao Ming, Wen Shuyi, Ren Qiao
  Amnesty:
      4 of the 5 officials fallen, at least 2 of them yours and more
      than anyone else's
      A mix of evidence, goodwill and fighting; works in a crowded game
  Uprising:
      Jade Lock and the Tide Gate held at 12 month-ends running
      Strong fighting bands with boats: Huo Baichuan, Gu Lanfeng, Xia
      Dongyun

Evidence. Steal evidence at an official's seat. The chance is 10 x Craft -
20 - garrison / 10, plus 20 for a Forger: Shen Wuyan (Craft 8, Forger) at
Salt Weir's garrison of 50 has 75%. A failure hurts the thief, and one time
in three the thief is caught and taken to Jade Lock. That is why your leader
must never do it.

Bringing officials down.
  * Expose an official by reading out evidence against them where goodwill
    is 60 or more. They flee the river, their garrison breaks up and their
    seat is left empty for the taking. This is the cheapest way.
  * Sway turns an official: 5 x Heart - 10 + silver / 5, plus 30 with
    evidence against them and 10 for a Speaker (the Intendant is 20
    harder). A turned official stops acting and hands you evidence against
    a colleague.
  * Capture one by winning a battle at their seat.

Which official first? Luo Tie at Iron Ford. Every three months (two on Hard)
he marches with all but 30 of his garrison on a band's place within two
links of Iron Ford, if he outnumbers its defenders by 1.3 to 1. Exposing or
turning him ends the marches for everyone. Until then, keep places near Iron
Ford well manned, or keep away.

BATTLES
-------

A raid is worth it when you clearly outnumber the defenders. The defender in
a fort counts 1.6 times as strong, behind a dike wall 1.4, in a village 1.3
and in reeds 1.2; a unit in the water or on mud is weaker.

  * Your commander is the battle. If the commander flees, drifts away, is
    carried off or is taken, the battle is lost. Keep them behind the
    line.
  * Archers shoot two or three hexes with no return blow (not at night).
    Ambush from hiding in the reeds hits half as hard again with no return
    blow: halt a unit in the reeds (H) and wait for the enemy to come next
    to it. Charge (after moving, with half the movement left) hits half as
    hard again but takes a return blow.
  * Take the fort: an attacking unit standing on it at two phase-ends
    running wins the battle.
  * Rice: each side eats about 1 rice a day per 50 men; a side with none
    at the day's end loses. Raid with rice in store.
  * Boats drift one hex downstream at the end of each night unless a
    Boatman leads them, and drifting off the field takes them out of the
    battle. Land them before night, or burn the enemy's boats (Craft 4,
    not in rain).
  * Bribes buy off an enemy crew (never its commander) for carried silver;
    a big crew costs more.
  * When it is not going well, A lets the computer finish the battle.

KEEPING YOUR PEOPLE
-------------------

  * Loyalty falls by 1 every month the band runs out of rice and rises by
    1 for winning a battle and for each year without hunger. Below 3,
    people may leave at the month's end and take their men with them.
  * Ties: each friend of a person at the same place adds 5 to that
    person's task chances; each grudge takes 5 off. Two people with a
    grudge of -3 at the same place will not stay together: one leaves. The
    character sheet shows ties.
  * Wounds heal one step every second month, every month with a Healer of
    the band at the place, or by a Rest. Hurt people can still do light
    tasks (travel, trade, recruit, help, scout and the like).
  * Prisoners: recruit them if the chance is good (it falls with their
    loyalty to their old band), ransom them for silver, or release them
    for a kind tale. Putting them to death makes a cruel tale.

THE SEASONS
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  * Spring: the marsh flood channels open (Reed Marsh to South Levee and
    Heron Bend); the fords close. Fishing is good. Towns near Grain Hill
    may go hungry: help there counts double.
  * Summer: storms can close the river at a place for a month, and break
    weak dikes. Dikes fall twice as fast.
  * Autumn: the fords open (Iron Ford to Black Reed Source, Lower Weir to
    Black Reed Dike); the upper streams are too low for boats going up.
    The harvest comes in month 9.
  * Winter: the upper river freezes and can be walked without boats;
    gathering gives half. Silver comes in month 12.

PLAYING WITH OTHERS
-------------------

  * Hot seat: every band has the same rules; the others should look away
    at the hand-over screen. Pacts (no attacks for 12 months) let
    neighbours grow in peace, but breaking one makes a cruel tale.
  * Online: give your tasks early in the month. One battle at a time is
    fought per game, so if another player acts while your raid is
    unfinished the computer finishes it. End your turn (E) when you are
    done, so the month can move on before the deadline.

COMMON MISTAKES
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  * Running out of rice in the first winter: men leave and loyalty falls.
  * Sending the leader to steal, or into a raid that can be lost.
  * Forgetting the dikes until year 18.
  * Doing kindness at the river mouth, where the tale goes nowhere.
  * Leaving places near Iron Ford thinly held while Luo Tie is in office.
  * Raiding without boats along a river, or without rice for the days of
    the battle.

See also the player's guide (PLAYER.txt, or H in the game) and the wiki:
https://retro.theiguru.au/docs/riveroath/start
