Editing King of Dragon Pass (section)

==King of Dragon Pass==
===Summary===
You take the role of the ruling council of an Orlanthi tribe that recently migrated to Dragon Pass. Your abilities are limited by which tribesmen you appoint to your Council, which are critical to deciding your tribe's success at growing food, responding to dilemmas, and waging war; and the breadth of sacred lore you acquire, which is necessary for the all-important ''heroquests'' in which your tribe conducts shamanic rituals to send champions to the realm of the gods for answers, blessings, and treasures. Your goal is either to forge a tribe with your neighbors and hold kingship of it for ten years or (if you're playing the long game) actually unify the disparate peoples of the region and become the true King of Dragon Pass™.

===Strategy===
King of Dragon Pass is first and foremost a roleplaying game, so trying to minmax by looking up guides and such is arguably defeating the purpose. In general the manual is very good and should be enough to get you started after you figure out how the UI works, however there are some Important Things that may fuck you over if you don't grok them quickly enough.

====Do NOT Fuck With The Ducks====
[[File:Ooga booga duck.png|thumb|typical Duck engaged in typical Duck activities]]
Fairly early in the game, your explorations will turn up a random encounter in the form of a clan of [[Durulz|duck people]] living in the nearby swamps. Given they are small and look like a [[Disney]] knockoff, you will probably be tempted to either bully them into submission or just slaughter them and take their land for yourself, especially if you chose [[beastfolk|beastmen]] as your ancestral enemies.

'''''Do NOT do this!'''''

While the ducks may ''look'' stupid, they are in fact well-trained, vicious little fuckers with a massive grudge against the whole world that they are more than happy to aim in your direction if you try and start something with them. Unless you are either ''very'' good at the game or extremely lucky, they will send in their Humakti magicians (you know, the ones that help you commit Total Horsespawn Death) to fuck you up. And even if ''they'' don't kick your ass, then their [[beastfolk]] allies, who are even nastier than they are, will probably do it for them. If you ask your clan ring they'll tell you this but if you forget or give into temptation you likely won't live to regret it for very long.

It is far safer and far more prosperous for your tribe to forge peace with the ducks. They can't accept treasure, and their [[heresy|"unique"]] take on Orlanthi religion poses some problems with getting along, but in general it is just far better for you since the alternative is getting demolished by [[Furry|furries]].

====You Can Never Have Enough Cows====
Food and cattle are the foremost priority and many a great playthrough has been scuffed by not being on top of the food situation. Without enough farmland or hunting grounds, your clan will begin starving and will start killing cattle for food. However, cattle is also a measure of your wealth and power, and having fewer cattle not only limits your economy but also means the AI will consider you a bunch of [[Fail|stickpickers]] and preferentially target you for raids. As such, your council should at all times have at least one member who is ''Excellent'' or better at Plants and/or Animals, preferably someone who also worships the relevant god. Expect to be micromanaging your pasture and cropland every season just like a real Bronze Age tribe. (If you're playing the original version you can also expect to micromanage your crop mix every year based on the omens you get every Sacred Time.)  Optimally, you'll start with more than enough land but you may elect not to as you can use your neighbors as unwilling donors. If you expect a bad harvest try to call in favors for food early so you're not surprised by the starvation warning in Dark season and forced to either emergency slaughter or send an expedition out who will probably die from the cold.

'''Explore, Explore, Explore'''

There's a lot of crazy awesome shit in Dragon Pass that's just waiting to be discovered. If you don't send expeditions out to go find it you're not only missing out on a lot of what the game has to offer, you're inviting bandits and worse things to skulk around right under your nose. That said you have to remember that you're living in a Bronze Age setting and overland travel is difficult and dangerous. NEVER send an expedition out during Dark season if you can possibly avoid it, ideally you should do it in Sea and/or Earth seasons when there's not a lot going on and the other clans are too busy farming to start shit. The same also applies when you send a trade caravan or diplomatic mission to another clan. The farther you travel the riskier exploring gets, so start small by just exploring your tula (don't move the target crosshair after clicking Explore) and when you're fairly secure start sending some reasonably large scouting parties into the unexplored areas of the map.

====Keep Your Enemies Close====
At the start of the game, single out a neighboring clan or two as your personal whipping boy. Generally, pick a clan whose nature is alien to yours (such as slavers) or who will interfere with the eventual kingdom unification endgame (such as the duck-hating First Clan). If you are at war with anyone else at the start of the game, offer them horses and make peace ASAP. War is sub-optimal and you want to be at peace as long as possible with as many people as possible to keep your population from being wasted in battle. Remember, pre-Industrial, even pre-Classical, warfare involved a few masses of untrained men supporting a few elite warriors, and KoDP's combat system reflects that. If you fight too many battles and lose them or don't win them decisively, you may lose two to five of your elite Weaponthanes, but you'll lose dozens of men who, when they're not fighting, are your hunters, farmers, and herdsmen. You will lose agricultural and economic production with every death, and be much more vulnerable to counter-raids. Only raid when you're trying to prove a point, need more land, or your local warhawks start getting bored. Raid your whipping boy too much and they will migrate out of fear of you, and you'll be forced to find a new one.

To improve your skill at war you should have at least one councilor that is ''Excellent'' or better in Combat. The one with the highest combat score will automatically become your warleader and a combination of their Combat and Leadership skills will affect the random rolls you make in combat. Other factors will include the amount of magic assigned at the start of a year to War, free magic assigned to any battle, and the effect of various treasures you may discover or buy. Also, when traces of existential threats such as undead or Chaos show up, deal with 'em immediately, preferably under the direction of specialists. Your general is primarily improved by their partaking in Heroquests with respective foci in Combat and Leadership. Heroquests are also available for your Food specialists such as the one wherein they [[Lulz|pretend to be a cow]].

You've gathered by now that having food and winning battles are highly important and as such your magic should always be allocated for anything that improves these. With food and combat secure, your playthrough is set. Specific guides for Heroquesting, combat tactics, and tribe building are freely available elsewhere, though the game has so many options and events that you can freely experiment and try new things every playthrough.