I was planning a quick run-through of Baldur's Gate 3's early access content, but aside from the absence of alignments, the presence of warlocks and other stupidity, just seeing that 5e fighters can apparently self-heal now (and presumably shoot infinite lightning from their eyes as a free action) almost made me upchuck my lunch. Uninstalled at character creation. I'll suffer through that mess exactly once after release. You're better off buying Low Magic Age.
Back to Calradia then.
Having secured Baltakhand against the Easterling hordes, I discovered to my dismay that one cannot govern in absentia and therefore I cannot govern anything myself, more or less forcing you to leave companions behind at settlements. Not a terrible design decision in itself, except much as with Pathfinder: Kingmaker, I have to wonder at its somewhat inconsiderate implementation. Half my skill choices so far were at least partly informed by potential governance. If a blurb in the Civilopedia says "assign companion" but fifty skill descriptions in your own character window say you'll be using your personal bonus, you're more likely to take your almighty character sheet on its word. At least add a "you cannot personally govern anything" loading hint. I also wasted a year before my first construction project because I hadn't noticed my low stability outright negates its progress. The new town management screens could certainly use more explicative tooltips (use Stellaris or Europa Universalis as examples) detailing the numeric weight of various factors into every derived stat or outcome. Other lack of interface functionality like inability to rearrange the production queue certainly doesn't help. The same is true of kingdom management or other new features like sieges - I went at least three sieges wondering why my Engineering skill wasn't leveling or my engines not being built before I discovered by dumb luck the need to individually click-build siege engine tiles on the overland map.
By now I've also reached the point where I can answer one of my own questions from three months ago, when I said M&B2 has obviously shifted its gameplay focus from M&B1 but I just wasn't seeing the payoff yet. It takes a decade of in-game time to get there. The shift has been away from RPG party adventuring and toward kingdom management.
But... it's a mixed bag. Aside from the need for companion-governors reinforcing the observation that everything now comes back to renown, leaving so many of them behind to literally hold the fort means your companions no longer keep you company, explaining why they're not even given any dialogue, randomized as it might have to be. Above that at the kingdom level, your fellow lords' personalities very rarely outweigh their common algorithm in their decision-making, meaning any political decisions besides fief allocation (and even that) tend to be decided by near unanimity with little chance to rock the vote.
Which wasn't so bad until I was shocked by my newly-depleting coin purse. I had expected a fief to produce not cost money, and a quick glance through town management reveals why. That asshole Lucon handed me a lemon! Baltakhand's got jack-shit for amenities and they must've plundered it after capture because its loyalty starts out nigh-rebellious... having rebelled once already if memory serves. The next few years fly by in desperate attempts to stabilize my increasingly volatile economy. After securing nearby Kaysar castle, their constant troop recruitment quickly puts me in the red, and while I'm managing to defend my own neck of the woods the other end of the Northern Empire is falling apart. After Diathma we lost Saneopa as well, with Epicrotea being wedged farther apart from the rest of the empire to the point of becoming indefensible. And much as with the constant tournaments, the AI seems determined to force a feeling of constant action-action-action by unending war declarations, meaning I can't spend time manually working up some cash either. You're lucky if you get half a trade circuit in between wars. At least I get some more territorial expansion out of it, albeit all of it initially in the form of a low-yield string of castles out in the marches: Khimli, Usek, Hakkun, Akisek, covering all but the Southern end of the now increasingly former Khuzait homeland, strung out in a vulnerable line making it hard to reinforce them.
I finally realize Lucon fucking hates me. I mean, that's what it means when the emperor keeps giving you white elephants as presents, right?
Ah, well. It's not all bad. All the warrin's done wonders for my combat skill progression and I did eventually secure Ortongard as well, easing the tax burden a bit. I'm now level 24, and given the nature of the skill-based leveling I might possibly make it to 28 for another attribute point.
The new system is quite strict, limiting the returns on any one particular attribute by making your overall level (and therefore skill points) dependent on total skill gain across the board, feeding on itself and discouraging min-maxing. I'll have to see where it takes me.
My new villages illustrate the picturesque quality of nomadic isolation, be it in summer
 |
| hawt yurts |
or winter
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| cool yurts |
but if you look closely you'll also see the Khuzaits' main economic headache trotting about. Give up?
 | |
| Yep, that's a sheep alright. |
The herd-lands produce herds. Horses, sheep, more horses, a cow here and there. A few ancillary trade goods like wool or butter as well, but the common link is herds. As these cannot be fed back into the local economy via workshops like you would timber or iron, and are not immediately useful like foodstuffs, they more or less require cross-map trips to the North and West ends of the subcontinent (there's bronies in them thar hills) and (though horses do have the reliably highest profit margin) given herding places more stringent movement penalties on your party than does trade good weight, I end up having to repeatedly stampede as fast as I can before that idiot Lucon declares another war. What's worse, steppe warhorses being twice as expensive as their imperial counterparts makes it more profitable to sell them and buy chargers, and difficult to upgrade that iconic central Asian light cavalry.
Well enough of that!
Realizing I'd saved up 1800 political influence, when the Western Empire next kerfuffled in our direction, I decided to take matters into my own hands, at least as much as I can without running the kingdom. I assembled a 1200-strong army and recaptured Saneopa. Then the retaliating enemy army. Then Diathma. Then a couple of the surrounding castles. Then, though it took hundreds of influence points to keep it together, marched straight East (as that idiot Lucon re-opened hostilities with the Khuzaits while we were still occupied in the West) and captured and claimed Chaikand, a fully-built city far more profitable than my existing properties. By the turn of the century I've maxed out my reputation at rank 6, the tartar hordes have been reduced to lonely Simira Castle and its two villages (invisible here in the far SE) and it looks like the Battanians (green) are next on the chopping block.
While ambivalent about the diminished adventure party gameplay and of a mind to tone down some of the constant warring and tournaments just a smidge (and disappointed at some interface lacks still two years after release) M&B's sandbox charm continues to come through in every aspect. While the AI alternates between cut-throat offensives and abject incompetence, this is largely because you're expected to take charge: from trade, skill and unit investments to battlefield deployment and engagement to Magellanic trade runs to covering your battering ram's advance to the gates
to saving your imperator from his own incompetence by leveraging your political power to lead your faction to victory. I could probably even cheat the white elephant system by giving away my castles right before conquering a town, but simply decided to roleplay the cards I was dealt. Overall, still the industry's best example of how to both provide content and an overarching framework and at the same time allow the player to direct the action.
There's only one thing left to do and that's look to my clan's continuity, which also gives me an idea for how to get back at old Lucon for making me his whipping marquis.
I'm'a fuck 'is grand-daughter!
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