Princesses, Princesses everywhere

[Pixel Peeper]

There's a million threads about Princesses (fake or otherwise), but the information is uneven and all over the place. So I thought I'd just describe how it's been for me.

You'll need 1,100,000 gold pieces, so be prepared.

1. Gave a princess (Sally) to the dragon in Portland, opening up the Dragon Riders questline

1.5. Much later, talked to Blackbeard on Sandy Island, Blackie mentioned that he might not deserve a real princess. Not sure if this step is required.

2. The main "unlock" seems to happen at the charm school in Inselburg. Give the headmistress 25,000g for 25 young women.

3. Talked to her again and she offered 5 real princesses for 500,000g. Accepting makes her go away forever, so you should probably REFUSE.

4. Talked to her again and saw an option to buy 10 "almost-real" princesses for 500,000g. Accepted.

5. Talked to her again and finally accepted the offer for 5 real princesses. This should give you the Level II Medal for Leadership reduction for any female units as a great side-benefit.

5.5 Gave a real princess to Feline. This only gave me 20 young men and 20 young women; if there's another benefit (there really should be!), I don't know what it is yet. I may have wasted a princess, but I had to try, FOR SCIENCE!

6. Gave the 10 almost-princesses to the dragon, resulting in 10 Dragon Riders available for hire.

7. Marie Curie suddenly had an option for making false princesses. She asks for dresses and young women, and sends you to Feline.

8. Feline wants a real princess and 100,000 gold so she can make copies of her dress. Accept and you'll get 20 dresses.

9. Give those and the young women to Curie for 20 fake princesses.

Total: 5 real princesses, 10 almost-real princesses, and 20 fake princesses.

At least one real princess is consumed during the process, so you get a maximum of 34 usable princesses at that point in the game. 32 if you gave one to Feline and one to Blackbeard. Giving one to Blackbeard seems to open up a small follow-up quest for a bit of gold and experience, may not be worth it either.

Feel free to correct or add to this mini-guide. Hopefully people looking up the whole fake princess thing won't be as confused as many of us were.

[Nya]

I'm not sure if giving Feline princess for 20 men and women is a necessary step. For me Marie just one day had an option of making false princesses and that was all.

[butler_parker]

The option from Marie Curie regarding the fake princesses will come up, after you give Oncologon 3 (Sally does not count!) princesses. You should talk to Feline after that point to only "waste" one princess in order to get the 20 fake princesses from her. Those men and women from Feline was a normal option at some point of the game for me (demoness).

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by Nya:

I'm not sure if giving Feline princess for 20 men and women is a necessary step. For me Marie just one day had an option of making false princesses and that was all.

Probably isn't. I didn't think so anyway, so I marked it as a ".5" step.

Originally posted by butler_parker:

The option from Marie Curie regarding the fake princesses will come up, after you give Oncologon 3 (Sally does not count!) princesses. You should talk to Feline after that point to only "waste" one princess in order to get the 20 fake princesses from her. Those men and women from Feline was a normal option at some point of the game for me (demoness).

Nice. That means you'd have to miss the 10 almost-real princesses option *and* give a princess to both Feline and Blackbeard to miss the opportunity to get False Princesses at that point in the game. I think most people should be safe from that eventuality.

Yes, the young men and young women have always been available to me (also playing demoness), still are. But I didn't imagine they wouldn't be for other races; that would be terrible as you would have no way to reinforce troops at the Shelter expect via prisoners. I guess I'll see when I eventually start over with the orc.

[dw0rd]

I don't believe you need ot give Feline a princess to get the young men and women. You just need to give her the Abbey and promote her fanclub by talking to Gossip and distributing the paintings.

Actually, I'm not 100% sure when they become available. I'll pay more attention next playthrough.

So far I've only figured out that the young women are needed for female vampires and fake princesses. I always get too many.

In one game as Bagyr, I was able to use the young men to get Dark Knights and in another as Daert to get Guardsmen. In the first case, I had an all Traitor army and in the second either all Orc or all Zwerg. I can never can get too many but Feline ran out of young men to sell me in the second game.

Maybe others have found more uses depending on race and army type.

As an aside: I wanted to try different paths in the Daert game to see what would happen. I deliberately passed on Sally and let Gnawie eat Twibill. I didn't have enough money for Beyu's princesses so had to wait until Drakkendar and Amazonia to get any. I was still too poor to buy Dragon Riders but finished the quests.

[camelotcrusade]

As a side note, if you don't use the young men for troop conversion, give them to Soreg. Each batch of 10 = 100 prisoners (it says young men volunteers when you talk to him). If you give him all 500 that you can buy that's 5k prisoners to turn in for a nice boost to the troops you can hire at the shelter. The only annoying part is you can only buy and turn them in 10 at a time. And if Feline stops at giving you 250, finish the recruitment quest for her to get the rest.

[dw0rd]

Wow cc, this thread has been quiet for 11 months and you've kept it alive!

The 10-at-a-time limit kept me from even attempting to max out young men to prisoners. Thanks for doing it and relating the result.

This game has more nooks and crannies than a Thomas's English Muffin. I have the feeling you want to find (taste) them all.

[rhony2]

How many princesses do you need to give the dragon to clear the quest? I've given him 30 princesses (both real and fake) and that quest still has not cleared.

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by rhony2:

How many princesses do you need to give the dragon to clear the quest? I've given him 30 princesses (both real and fake) and that quest still has not cleared.

I haven't played in forever, but I think it might simply be a repeatable quest, always open.

The dragon offers dragon riders in exchange for princesses; there is no reason why he would stop.