Silva
Arcane
Is this criticism of Six Ages valid, in your opinions?
https://www.reddit.com/r/SixAges/comments/eyur3x/gameplay_structure_of_ride_like_the_wind_warning/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SixAges/comments/eyur3x/gameplay_structure_of_ride_like_the_wind_warning/
I was sitting in the doctor's office playing this game again for the first time in months, and a few things started to coalesce about the game and how to win it. I'm not sure this is criticism exactly, but just a series of observations. For anyone reading this, this is your last chance to back out before seeing major spoilers.
To win the game, you need to have Beren the Tall marry Redalda. That in turn involves passing a series of event tests, and of course surviving, both the clan and Beren himself, long enough to get to them. The biggest hurdle a player is likely to stumble over is this event.
https://sixages.fandom.com/wiki/Redalda_Proposal
Where a series of events must all be passed to convince her clan to allow her to marry a Rider and you in particular. Success or failure in all of those events except the bride price are primarily affected by how skilled your clan ring is, especially in Diplomacy, Magic, and Combat. While other factors also weigh in, such as how much magic you have to throw around in appropriate categories and keeping some in reserve, and the respect of other clans, especially Redalda's clan, I've found that it's much easier to make it work with amazing clan ring members and a weak external position than the reverse, and my single biggest reason I lost a bunch of games early on when it was newly released on the iphone was I kept stupidly sending Beren to lead the raid on the inhuman king instead of my best fighter like certain people on my ring kept suggesting.
Obviously, this won't impact gameplay for someone's first few rides out when they're still trying to grapple with the system. But especially if you're achievement hunting or just in love with the game and playing it over and over again, it provides a semi-perverse incentive. What really matters if you want to win? Build up your clan nobles, especially the ones who are young at the start of the game, and get them in the clan ring. Food, herds, fortifications, treasures? As long as you're not starving, doesn't matter much. Raiding your foes, exploration, sending trade caravans out, all the stuff you spend most of the middle game doing once you've got your basic position secure? All of it is secondary to building up as many people with Heroic in a stat as you can, at least if you want to win the game.
And THAT, at least in my opinion is a damn shame, because a lot of the mechanics for things like herd building, or exploration or the diplomacy setups, are a lot of fun and interesting in their own right. But they don't actually impact winning or losing all that much. The game seems almost disjointed.