What's the best faction(s) to ally with?

[Bedelguese]

And why are they the Hounds and Shinobi Theives, nowhere else can you find bigger bros then them, from wandering assassins butchering people hassling you to Hounds coming to save your keister from getting eaten alive by blood spiders.

[Urza]

The Shinobi Theif alliance doesn't negatively impact any other standing with any other faction that I'm aware of, which is why they're a great ally. You don't piss anybody else off. You can also buy some great backpacks, recipes, and powerful items from them. In addition, you get a Plastic Surgeon in every town that has one of their towers.

The Hounds alliance, I'm not certain about, because you might actually make the Red Sabres hate you more, which doesn't matter because they will attack you anyway. And you might have to fight some minor gangs in the Swamps, like the Stone Rats, but I'm not sure because I haven't allied them yet. It sounds like you don't actually piss off the any major faction allying them, which is basically the criteria for a good ally.

You can ally the Flotsam Ninja, but you will piss off the Holy Nation by doing so. Which doesn't matter if you've already pissed off the Holy Nation.

Allying any of the big three pisses off someone else, usually the Holy Nation, because both UC and Shek are at war with the HN. I'm pretty sure allying with the Holy Nation pisses off a bunch of people, probably the UC & Shek & Flotsam Ninja to say the least.

Allying the Shek will grant you access to a unique recruit, Seto. And I don't think it pisses off the UC, so they're probably the best ally at the moment out of the major factions. Allying the UC will grant you some tax exemption if you settled in their terrirtory, but you will be locked off from Seto & Red if you haven't recruited them.

[Bramborough]

Semi-hijack, but I think still within the broad topic. I'd like to ally with the Shek; am already at war with HN due to FN alliance, base in Shek territory anyway so allied support against raids should get to me pretty quick, and they're good warriors. Not to mention from an RP perspective, I find them the least "distasteful" of the three majors.

The thing is...lol, I don't know how. Brought 'em the Dust King, brought 'em Tora, and brought in the Berserker guy...all for a whopping 6 relation points total. At 2 pops per bounty, barely moves the needle. What opens up Shek to enough relations boost for alliance? Bugmaster?

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+1 to above regarding Shinobi. Can't think of a better 10K investment. In addition to all the things Urza mentioned, afaik they're the only reliable place to sell hashish without consequence. Ostensibly they're buying at 50% discount...but if they're the only ones buying, then that's rather meaningless, and it's still pretty good money.

[♥Phoenix Queen♥]

Shek, Shinobi, UC (ally after shek if you don't mind slavery), Hounds (they don't anger anyone allying with, eventually stone rats might hate hounds bc of fights that happen in shark but takes a while), you can ally with Trader's Guild by "freeing" guild nobles after "accidentally" leaving their unconcious bodies near cannibals such as fog men or the tribes to the northwest. You can technically do that with any other diplomatic status npc too to ally with pretty much anyone, potentially even after allying with their enemies though I haven't tried that yet.

If you don't like slavery you'll have to go to war with UC for moral reasons. =p So FCS edit in Anti-Slavers rep, and ally with Simon after punching a noble (worth). I like feeding the nobles to fogmen to get rid of them without provoking UC if you don't want them to be an enemy despite it all. Kidnapping will only lower you rep if you put them in a cage yourself or if you are caught doing it. So drop the nobles inside fogmen deathyards and watch them get nommed! =p

[♥Phoenix Queen♥]

Oh you can ally with shek via bugmaster or holy lord phoenix. Take them to the stone golem gal. You'll talk to her assistant first who will take the prisoner then he'll tell you to talk to Estera.

[Bedelguese]

Originally posted by Bramborough:

Semi-hijack, but I think still within the broad topic. I'd like to ally with the Shek; am already at war with HN due to FN alliance, base in Shek territory anyway so allied support against raids should get to me pretty quick, and they're good warriors. Not to mention from an RP perspective, I find them the least "distasteful" of the three majors.

The thing is...lol, I don't know how. Brought 'em the Dust King, brought 'em Tora, and brought in the Berserker guy...all for a whopping 6 relation points total. At 2 pops per bounty, barely moves the needle. What opens up Shek to enough relations boost for alliance? Bugmaster?

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+1 to above regarding Shinobi. Can't think of a better 10K investment. In addition to all the things Urza mentioned, afaik they're the only reliable place to sell hashish without consequence. Ostensibly they're buying at 50% discount...but if they're the only ones buying, then that's rather meaningless, and it's still pretty good money.

Bugmaster

[Bedelguese]

You can also "ally" with starving bandits by giving them increasing amounts of money to buy food

[VoshkaVonBadMeow]

Originally posted by Bramborough:

Semi-hijack, but I think still within the broad topic. I'd like to ally with the Shek; am already at war with HN due to FN alliance, base in Shek territory anyway so allied support against raids should get to me pretty quick, and they're good warriors. Not to mention from an RP perspective, I find them the least "distasteful" of the three majors.

The thing is...lol, I don't know how. Brought 'em the Dust King, brought 'em Tora, and brought in the Berserker guy...all for a whopping 6 relation points total. At 2 pops per bounty, barely moves the needle. What opens up Shek to enough relations boost for alliance? Bugmaster?

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+1 to above regarding Shinobi. Can't think of a better 10K investment. In addition to all the things Urza mentioned, afaik they're the only reliable place to sell hashish without consequence. Ostensibly they're buying at 50% discount...but if they're the only ones buying, then that's rather meaningless, and it's still pretty good money.

bugmaster dude to the stone golem in admag(?) will get you 100 relation right away, also you will be called x the battleborn and an honorary invincible :)

[Bragdras]

I always always end up with Shek as my main faction allies, because I always end up killing all that indulge in slavery, meaning it's an automatic at-war with Trading Guild, United Cities, Slavers (duh) and Holy Nation.

Which automatically means I also end up an ally of the Flotsam vs HN, Rebel Farmers vs UC and Anti Slavers (whenever they'll be reachable in the south east), Hounds & Shinobis are a no brainer cause they're practically free entry, and I would love having some way of being an ally of the mercenaries and tech hunters.

[Bramborough]

Hmm...my combat squad of 10 have Atk/Def/Tough/Str roughly in the 50 +/-10 range, with Dex perhaps averaging 40ish. 4 of the 10 are Crossbow shooters in the 60-70 range. Pretty much all Spec/Master quality Police/BPJ/BCM/PlatedDrifter/Longboot. That seemed pretty much "best" as of last night...with 98.53 changes who knows, lol. My plan is to give all the melee guys Edge2 Desert Sabres (they do all have some prior skill in that class...no one starting at skill level 1).

Feasibly Bugmaster-viable? Or am I still going to get rofl-stomped, lol?

(yes I know I'm wandering off-topic, but still tenuously related to the question of allying Shek, no?)

[VoshkaVonBadMeow]

Originally posted by Bramborough:

Hmm...my combat squad of 10 have Atk/Def/Tough/Str roughly in the 50 +/-10 range, with Dex perhaps averaging 40ish. 4 of the 10 are Crossbow shooters in the 60-70 range. Pretty much all Spec/Master quality Police/BPJ/BCM/PlatedDrifter/Longboot. That seemed pretty much "best" as of last night...with 98.53 changes who knows, lol. My plan is to give all the melee guys Edge2 Desert Sabres (they do all have some prior skill in that class...no one starting at skill level 1).

Feasibly Bugmaster-viable? Or am I still going to get rofl-stomped, lol?

(yes I know I'm wandering off-topic, but still tenuously related to the question of allying Shek, no?)

bug master is a solo dude with a mit-whatever desert saber, his states are in the 90's on all points.

You will fight him in an enclosed space with a bunch of spiders below him (Kill them first) then rush him, set your crossbow dudes up to shoot while he closes in (0-1 shot per dude most likely)then rush him with everyone. best way I found to beat him was to overwhelm him with humbers, then again, I also fight with a 3x attack slots vs the normal 1x

That means normally in the game it's always a 1v1, where they keep trading who the 1 is in a large battle.
In my game if i only have one opponent it's 3v1 meaning single opponents are at a large disadvantage.

Worst that will happend is he will kick your butt, and spiders will eat you :)

But he is still only human, only 100 on his body parts and he wears no noticable armor.

Aka, he can dish out damage, but can't take it very well.

[harberst]

I'd say you should be able to take out the bugmaster with that crew, but taking him out isn't the hard part. It's leaving afterwards....

[VoshkaVonBadMeow]

Originally posted by harberst:

I'd say you should be able to take out the bugmaster with that crew, but taking him out isn't the hard part. It's leaving afterwards....

yea, Spiders as far as the eye can see

[Bramborough]

Precisely why I'm arming everyone with best Desert Sabres I can craft....not for the Bugman, but for his minions.

[Bragdras]

Originally posted by Bramborough:

Hmm...my combat squad of 10 have Atk/Def/Tough/Str roughly in the 50 +/-10 range, with Dex perhaps averaging 40ish. 4 of the 10 are Crossbow shooters in the 60-70 range. Pretty much all Spec/Master quality Police/BPJ/BCM/PlatedDrifter/Longboot. That seemed pretty much "best" as of last night...with 98.53 changes who knows, lol. My plan is to give all the melee guys Edge2 Desert Sabres (they do all have some prior skill in that class...no one starting at skill level 1).

Feasibly Bugmaster-viable? Or am I still going to get rofl-stomped, lol?

(yes I know I'm wandering off-topic, but still tenuously related to the question of allying Shek, no?)

1 guy with a crossbow + a bit of stealth + kiting = dead bug master, doesn't matter the quality of your crossbow.

Actually forget the stealth, just go naked and outrun the spiders.

[harberst]

Shrieking bandit tactics. I approve.