I failed Hispaniola

[bvguthrie]

I like this game. The ability to lose battles without getting a game over makes sense for playing the leader of an expedition, and now I have no illusions that this feature might allow someone to just muddle through.
Here's what just happened to me (I think I'm remembering everything correctly): I had been going through Hispaniola, winning some battles and losing some, but gradually getting better--no food shortages, fewer tactical mistakes, and so forth. Before going to fight Esteban, I fought in the tournament and won it. Then I supplied myself and headed out. When I came upon Esteban and his men, I was able to ambush them, but still had a hard fight. I won, but got a bit concerned when I saw that all four of my wounded were either severe or critical.
Then I realized that I probably should not have gone adventuring with a couple thousand valuables and only a couple dozen units of medicine. I had forgotten that even minor injuries needed several units of medicine to heal, and I simply hadn't done the math. I was able to treat a couple of the wounded the first night, but a third deteriorated to fatal. I resigned myself to losing him and saved the game. When I came back to it, I started heading back to the capital as fast as I could, hoping only the one man would die before I reached it. But with my three best soldiers out of commission, my weakly guarded camp got attacked a couple nights later, and I didn't get the chance to organize a defense--so one of my doctors got wounded before I could even start the fight.
That fight therefore ended up featuring 2 recruit soldiers, and 1 each of man-at-arms level scout, hunter, scholar, and doctor. I lost. With more wounded now, I pressed on, until I came upon Esteban's men fighting with the other rebel faction. I waited for one side to win, then proceeded to lose to them. After that, I made it into the city, and used everything that hadn't been stolen to buy medicine. I was able to heal almost everyone still alive (I think 3 had died by then), but then I had to sell some of my equipment to buy more rations and a little more medicine. Since I clearly needed money and xp, I went on the gloaming quest, hoping it would help.
Along the way, one of my men was kidnapped to be used as a sacrifice. I kept heading north, still having some wounded party members, until I met some rebels who used me for target practice. I didn't even attempt that battle--I just retreated, getting some more injuries. Then I immediately ran into the same rebels again, because I didn't manage to maneuver around them with the moves I had left. I believe this was the point where my entire party was disabled. Also, I ran out of food, since I had not been able to spare anyone for hunting in some time.
Once we could no longer move, a soldier volunteered to limp back for help. But by the time help came, it was too late. Total party kill.
I have now learned to buy medicine, and not to keep large quantities of valuables that are useless in the jungle. Fortunately, I always keep multiple save slots, so I was able to go back to an earlier save instead of restarting the whole game.

[Jonas]

I suspect it's more common to fail in Hispaniola than in Mexico, because once you reach Mexico you've got a pretty solid grasp of the game mechanics. I'm glad you decided to persevere :)

Just remember there's no shame in turning down the difficulty setting if you start to get frustrated!