Birth of a Civilization VIII

Several harvest seasons pass and the Chieftain decided to send one of the eldest, who has quite a way with words, to the Teals and Prussians to strengthen our diplomatic ties.
Meanwhile, the women of our tribes have discovered that the clay they used for cooling, can stay in a shape after forming it.
Though we didn't figure out anything else until a curious child, burned down his family's home.
In the ruins we found, the clay shape has hardened. This changed quite a few things.
Just like that, we discovered the secrets of pottery.
With the knowledge of pottery, we started experimenting on all fields.
We started burning some of the more abundant food, inside pots, to see if that would do anything. Sure enough, eventually we figured out that we could dry wheat by putting it in some kind of container, and then putting the container on an open flame.
It was the fastest and most reliable way we could ever manage to conceive of, to store excess wheat.

The discovery of pottery also had an unintended side effect. While our Warriors have been steadily trying to improve their archery, it did not go unnoticed, that our lack of Metals, made our arrows infinitely weaker than that of our neighbors.
Some warriors, experimented with the hardened form of clay, and used it for their arrow-tips.
While more brittle, it proved stronger and more destructive than mere wood.
As arrows are 1-time use however, the brittle nature of the clay was made moot, and ours arrows all the more deadly.

Times are beginning to change, for better or for worse.

>>1318468
>pbe time use arrows
Now our warriors have to aim for headshots everytime less they waste arrows

>>1318503
our arrows were 1-time use from the get-go, since they're single-piece wood arrows. Glorified twigs if you will, they bend and become unusable upon impact.
Which is why clay is an objective improvement.
Same 1-time use, but more destructive force.

New player here. Where in the world are we? Baltics, I assume as we are close to the Prussians, right?

File: River Vistula.png (461KB, 666x996px) Image search: [Google]

461KB, 666x996px

>>1319512
Here's the map.
We're a tiny double-tribe of Germanics, who came out of Denmark early and were forced from our original home, all the way to Poland.

>>1318468
I wonder if this clay we can use to keep fire from burning into a pot can be used to keep fire inside of a bigger pot. Maybe we should make a stove or fireplace to see how good this could be to heat our homes and cook our food.

>>1319647
So a candle lamp with holes?

>>1319590
I have just recently learned that had we migrated to the West instead we could've sit on one of the only tin deposits in Europe.

Well, what's done is done.

But why don't we use bone or stone-tipped arrows? How come we're even less advanced than paleolite hunter-gatherers?

>>1319663
Because we have nearly no natural resources, and until recently, we never used arrows for anything but hunting, and unsurprisingly, weak as shit arrows won't hurt the meat as badly.

>>1319673
>we have nearly no natural resources
We do have bones though.

>>1319673
And the "won't hurt the meat" argument is stupid, sorry. Even if it's somehow true and relevant, to know this we had to use something other than bare wood arrows once. Also you make it seem like we were lacking in arrow damage department, and not by choice.

>>1319676
yeah, but no one told me to make bone arrows, so I didn't make bone arrows.
The fact we have clay arrows results out of 2 separate decisions regarding large scale experimentation with clay, and with bow / arrow
so I just combined them at the end.

>>1319681
>No pottery
>No bone tools
I blame the anons who wanted to play on Nightmare

>>1319724
well we DO have pottery as of this thread.

>>1318468
>Let's start experimenting with building wicker-and-clay boats. Perhaps some children would try to take a ride in an especially big pot and it'll go on from there?

>>1319653
No, I mean a large clay oven we could use for cooking things differently. It could also be useful as a way to retain higher heat for our blacksmith during the forging process, making his job easier.

>>1319738
I'm so glad this quest it still going!
Now these are thought I have.
Send somw scouts out to see where the yellows are getting metal from.
>Try to stage a small raid dressed in red garb to get some resources, aim for equipment. Like tools, weapons and such.
Another round of pottery development, but add a mix of weaving to make baskets and whicker stuff.
Send out another scouting party to look for new things, stone, caves, off colored rocks and the like.

Are we more powerful/more numerous than any of our neighbors? if so we should conquer them for that sweet tech

>>1321720
Actually the opposite, we're smaller and weaker then everyone around us. So but the complaining for other players we haven't put much into our soldiers or military. That's why I proposed a raid in red clothing, a way to get shit done without any repercussions

>>1321876
we've done that exact same thing before and it ended in us migrating, remember?
>look for easy resource gain
>dress up as blues
>raid reds
>reds chase us into the woods until they lose track
>reds go to war with blue federation
>reds call in browns to curbstomp literally everyone around them
>blue, pink, grey, orange, purple all dead
>purple refugees come to us
>red follow
>purple warriors sacrifice themselves for us and their families to get out safely
>settle where we are now

>>1322708
Yeah but the yellows are much smaller and I feel more confident in this new place with out wall, trench and archers.

>>1324118
fair enough I suppose

A tribeswoman took a pot out of the fire too early without noticing, then placed some straw or other plant fiber inside of the wet clay. Her eldest daughter, realising that the pot was uncooked and wanting to help her mother; unmolded it and tried to reshape it before cooking it properly. However the girl realised that the straw mixed with the clay, and threw the mixture out, thinking that it was useless. The block eventually hardened with the sun, only to be discovered by the tribeswoman a few days later, who realising the potential of her child's invention, wasted no time and called the chieftain over.

>>1331128
that's nice anon, but you still gotta wait for people to reach an agreement on what to do.

>>1331128
Second this action.
>So, right now we have a lot pending actions.
1)Scout out where the yellow tribe gets their metal from and do a small raid.
2)Another round of pottery exploration and experimentation.
3)Send out scout looking for cave, rock out croppings and general abnormalities.
4)Set forth a construction plan to make a building for a kiln or blacksmithing.
5)Explore and experiment with making whicker clay hybrid board.
6)Bone tools? I'm not sure if that was serious or not.

>>1331788
2nded, except for do a small raid.
We don't have the resources or manpower to afford raiding and having to perform Exodus: Episode 2 - Attack of the Yellows.
>6)Bone tools? I'm not sure if that was serious or not.
Well, using bone tools would be a useful way to recycle the dead and to help supplement our pottery income. It could possibly be better for weapons than pottery.

>>1318333
>No to raiding
>Yes to experimenting with clay and wicker

>>1331816
Bone tools are supposed to be made from the animals we eat. Nothing as edgy as making your grandma into a spear.

>>1331835
That's not what I meant, but the mental image in my head is too hilarious to discount imaging the scenario where this was in our grandmother's will.

We probably shouldn't raid the yellows since we need allies roght now

>>1331816
Alright fine, no raid this time but I wanna kill some of the dirty savages eventually.
(Including my votes.)
We have 3 for see where yellows get there metal.
3 for bone tools, arrow heads, and such.
2 for expimenting with clay and wicker.
Any last votes before the official actions?

>>1332811
you really wanna exchange clay for bone arrows already?
I thought it was nice to have clay arrows, because it's so fragile, you can do retarded shit with it, like making that shit so brittle it explodes on contact and the shards hit your eyes.
Considering our situation I was expecting some more creativity.

>>1332829
I figured it was more for versatility than outright replacing all our clay weapons. Helps to have options y'know?

>>1332833
fair enough.
Imagine though, exploding arrows, that's like, bronze-age grenades right there.

>>1332835
I don't think clay arrowheads work like that.

>>1332835
I'm not against clay arrow tips but that's more anti-personnel because I don't want then to break apart in animals.
>That said, I did vote for another round of pottery development and experimentation

>>1332811
I only counted 2 votes for a raid and 2 against

>>1332829
>>1332835
Although, now that you mention it, if runes existed in the quest then clay arrows would be great for disposable runes. Inscriptions would be much easier to shape than metal or wood, and the expendable nature of arrows and the type of rune nullifies the drawbacks of having something so brittle. We could have exploding clay runes that we can easily pump out batches for with minimal equipment.
Furthermore, if those existed then maybe we can make some composite materials with the exploding clay runes layered inside a metal shell for armor-piercing explosive arrows.

>>1332842
We're probably going to need a sturdy casing on the arrowhead shells to maximum the shrapnel effect or allow the arrowheads to be more durable until impact.

>>1332847
Nah lad, I deal in realism, and realism accessories.
No magic here, only the brilliance of the human mind. Though nothing speaks against inscribing shit onto the arrows for whatever reasons.

If you guys help me engineering a realistic concept for exploding arrows in 1200 BC
I will make them a reality.

>>1332864
But QM, the brilliance of the human mind IS magic!
>>1332866
So to make those arrows work, I can think of two variations:
Make broadhead clay arrows as brittle and strong as possible, for unarmored targets.
Make a composite clay with a sturdy material like metal for armor-piercing arrows, possibly leave some holes in the arrow for the clay to shatter through from the blunt force of the impact. The sturdy material is shelling for the clay on the inside to act as shrapnel. Maybe give the composite clay arrowheads grater-like holes?

>>1318333
Is there an archive for the quest? I only briefly checked on some of the past threads, so I'm currently working off whatever was given in this thread.

>>1332898
Composite clay bodkin point arrows, that's what it was.
We can give them a grater-like design to give holes for the clay to act as shrapnel and either leave it empty at those parts or fill it with more clay to complete the arrowhead.

so you guys reached a conclusion yet?

>>1337188
Another round of pottery and clay experimentation.
Begin to implement bones of animals as good tips for hunting arrows and battle spears.
Send out scout yo see where the yellow tribe is getting metal from.
Try to combine clay and wicker to make stuff like boats or something.
>Clay bricks? That long post seems pretty nice.
I think that's it

>>1337188
>>1337689
Yeah. My offer was for making multiple types of clay, bone, and clay-bone arrows if the bone happens to work well enough for it.
So that's just adding more types of weapon tips to the weapon manufacture.

>>1337689
>>1337704
Come to think of it, we're mostly using wooden shafts to my memory?
We should try experimenting other types of shafts too with the materials we have available for stuff like counterweights and weapon durability. The equivalent of heavy infantry would probably want the sturdiest shafts available.

>>1337739
We would but we live in a grassy plain so what wood we do have is the only wood we have. But I get what you mean, just out it in the back burner for now.

>>1337689
me no habla ingles
what in god's name is wicker?

>>1338069
Lel ich spreche nur Deutsch
And I guess figure it out, weave shit together

>>1338135
well, an extensive google search reveals....
it's kinda like straw but made from grass and can be made out of wood as well.
Is that assumption correct?

>>1338174
People used a lot of different thing, flax, wheat, grass, sheep's wool even hair.
>Fun fact: Sigmund Freud thought women weaved in the ancient world so they could weave their pubic hair to hide the fact that they did not have a penis. Cause you know, yeah.

>>1338174
>wicker
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Wicker
Anything woven from a cane-like material, so the consistency of grass and stuff, yeah.

>>1338259
>>Fun fact: Sigmund Freud thought women weaved in the ancient world so they could weave their pubic hair to hide the fact that they did not have a penis. Cause you know, yeah.
Wut.
Did Freud say this type of stuff to secretly hide any fetishes he didn't want to admit?

>>1338069
Basically what baskets are made of.

>>1338433
Nah, see the reason Freud gas so many theories like that is because he did fuck you of coke. Look up fun facts about sigmund freud, by Sam O'Nella

>>1339309
Side note, I'm also day drunk right now, so spelling isn't a concern of mine

>>1338174
That is correct. I would describe it as a lattice (sticks or grass laid in an opposing pattern) that is set up to support something or it's own weight.
You see it a lot in chairs in modern times https://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5309002/il_fullxfull.310380107.jpg The backing and bottom are wicker
Also you see it a lot in baskets https://www.luckystargallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/R114.jpg
And to clarify the word lattice, since it may be something you have not heard in English (Not a common word). This is what I mean by Lattice http://media.istockphoto.com/vectors/white-cane-wicker-lattice-in-a-seamless-pattern-vector-id629823598

>>1337689
My vote was for more clay work. I do not care to change the way our arrows work again so quickly, but there does seem to be a majority asking for this.

>>1337188

>>1337689
I support the second round of pottery and clay experimentation.

Guess it is decided then, updating in a couple minutes.

Our Chieftain is nearing the end of his life-time.
With him ends an Era, but not quite yet.

Due to his encouragement of the Warriors and the Skewjo to continue innovating on their practices, things change quite a bit in the last seasons of his life.

The Warriors have adopted Bone-spears, after seeing how effectively Deer use their horns against others.
The Hunters follow this new trend as well, though retain the clay arrows for different purposes.

The continued usage of Clay, has lead to some interesting innovations coming from those who sought to appease Sun, Moon and to some degree the Skewjo as well.
More than mere dirt, Clay has become quite the useful material. Some people with too much free time on their hand, crafted some decent works of art, in the form of beautifully shaped Jugs.
The most interesting thing that occurred though, was the incorporation of clay into wicker crafts.
It made the already cheap and sturdy material. even sturdier.
We're not sure how to use this knowledge yet, but the finest pieces of Art we could muster, were made from Wicker, surrounded by burned Clay.
We buried our Chieftain with them, for he was the wisest man who ever ruled our tribes, deserving of tribute this beautiful and expensive.

Though, it feels like more than just the Chieftain 's life has ended these days.

>>1341649
Yay! We at least have become an archeological culture!
I was afraid without pottery no one will ever learn of us in the future.

>>1341649
How's our relaton with the neighbouring tribes?
We could share some of our pottery and clay inventions with a neighbouring one, like the yellows, and maybe they could help us in return (now or in the future) with inventions or other stuff.

>>1341834
I'm more than sure everyone else already knows pottery. It's such a basic thing only the Nightmare difficulty could have prevented us from it.

>>1341850
Ah well damn, but I guess we aren't aware of that ingame.
If we don't we could still do it and then we will discover how far ahead the other tribes are, but if we do know ingame then there's no reason for us to think that.

>>1341649
Alrighty. Now that I'm only on reffer time to mange a tribe!
So with bricks I would say begin replacing most hovels with better built brick structures that can't be more then one story, allowing more people to live in one home.
>Again I really want to find out where other tribes, epically the yellow are getting there metal.

Other then that, build store houses, start filling them with dried meats, water jugs and other goods.

>>1343353
I agree, either through diplomatic or spying means we should find out more about the yellow tribe near us.

>>1345119
We have to use spies, the yellow are hostile towards us. So we should send some people to find their mine, learn about the religion, their soldier count and defense.

We need to figure out a way to do succession
The cheif had 2 sons
Have 2 elders of both tribes conduct some sort of trial system to see who would he a better leader
Also, train a guy to be a story teller
Have him start and oral tradition to tell the old cheifs story
As time goes by we can start romanticizing him more and more until we make a book like the epic of gilgamesh

Alsi as time goes on we should start to implement him into our pantheon