Challenge #69: Gathering Intelligence

[The BlackVision]

Challenge #69: Gathering Intelligence

Author: Blackvision
Ideas bounced off: Liort
Contributions from: Welsh Dragon, azuac, Manuel

With the upcoming new expansion The Emperor's Challenge, the Renowned Explorers will be working overtime to find out all they can about what is going on! (and their efforts may reveal something about the Expansion!)

Special Announcement:

Everyone taking part in this challenge who manages to achieve at least a Bronze medal will be entered into a raffle to get a free key for the Emperor's Challenge DLC!

Story:

The air was buzzing with intrigue as the Explorers gathered in the Grand Hall. The dignitary had arrived last night, but rumours were spreading fast. What was going on in Pinkerton's office? They'd sent Harry to try and listen-in on the conversation inside, and both Maria and Yvonne were arguing with Lady Vaduva about being let in as they were important people, after all- but so far, there had been no success in finding out what was happening.

Then the doors opened, and a man dressed in outlandish silken robes, with a fine white beard strolled out alongside Pinkerton. They both acted as is oblivious of the Explorers, who did they best to get as close as they could to catch what was going on.

'...an excellent idea - the Society would be delighted to take part in this Challenge, Weng Tsu - and we would be delighted to meet the Orient's best and brightest!' Pinkerton grinned at the man. 'So we-' he looked round at the explorers nearby inclusively, '-will begin by showing the Emperor what we can achieve!'

At those words, the Explorers promptly put on their best-faces and endeavoured to attract the attention of Weng Tsu. Even Rivaleux himself puffed up his chest and stepped forwards to introduce himself - but here, Weng Tsu spoke before he could. 'Ahh, and this is the man himself, then? No, no, Mr Ri-va-lu-xi, no introduction is necessary. Indeed, introductions are sadly, impossible - I must return to the Emperor.'

The man bowed formally from the waist towards Pinkerton, then walking backwards - and somehow managing not to bump into anyone, he reached the main doors and promptly left.

Everyone turned to Pinkerton (except Jan-Piet, who was chortling over Rivaleux being called Riva-Lucy), whose eyes were gleaming with excitement. 'Explorers! We have been challenged - go and prove your worth as Explorers - but there are several limitations - our guest has some experts who will judge how well we perform for the initial test. The first test is to gather intelligence - all the Scouts and Speakers among you must fulfil these two challenges!' As he spoke, he'd been moving to the board for challenges. He slapped up two pieces of paper: the first in a very precise, practiced hand on a very fine piece of paper - which Emilia proclaimed (largely to herself) that it must be made of bamboo.

It declared that the writer expected every explorer to prove their value by returning with as many treasures as possible.

The second was in a flowing, elegant, woman's script on scented paper, and indicated that she was interested in how The Renowned Explorers resolved conflict - did they seek to conquer their foes with physical strength or with grace and an open, friendly approach? If they could prove which was better, they would earn her approval.

'Now,' exclaimed Pinkerton. '- go and Explore!''

Rules:

• Collect as many treasures as you can - you earn 250 bonus points for each one.
  
• Go either Friendly or Aggressive as your overall attitude - whichever Attitude has the most total entries at the end of the challenge gives an extra 1500 to that teams' entries.
  
• Your crew must be made up entirely of Scouts and/or Speakers.
  
• You must play on Adventure mode.

Scoring:

Your score is your renown + 250 for each treasure you collect and if you are on the biggest team of Explorers going either Aggressive or Friendly, you'll receive a bonus of 1500 points.

**Please note, everyone will receive 250 points for RE:IS membership Treasure, and if you provide a screenshot of your research tree showing it, will also add another 250 for Origin of the Species II as well.

• BRONZE: 8000 points (1MP*)
  
• SILVER: 14500 points (2MP*)
  
• GOLD: 18000 points (3MP*) **Changed from 20000**
  
• PLATINUM: 24000 points (3MP+**)

* Number of medal points awarded when playing on Classic Difficulty. Easy and Normal give less, according to these rules.
Gold and Platinum medals may only be achieved without losing, though Silver and Bronze are still possible to get with just the Record sheet for that trip.
** The platinum medal is extraordinary and can only be achieved on Classic or Impossible difficulty without losing. It doesn't increase Medal Points further than a Gold medal, but we will track how many you have.

The Chairman's Suggestions

(The challenge organisers may be experimenting with a set of recommendations to assist newer explorers at times)
Each week, Pinkerton has some advice for Explorers relating to the challenge - if you want, this advice can offer good approaches or strategies to approach the challenge with - but they are not the only way to succeed or any given challenge - it is worth trying other approaches too, or using these as a basic idea to build from.
(click here)
Be warned: SPOILERS within! Each section is separate (though may contain information relating to the others - effective team synergy usually relies on interlocking parts to work!) if you just wish for a few clues in certain areas.

How to participate

You can participate with a highscore, a story or both.

Stories

Write a story. Use the Challenge theme as an inspiration by looking at the constraints. Find other stories in the Fan Story directory or by looking at previous challenges.
Post your story in a new topic in these forums.
Also link to it to this thread with a comment: Include the first paragraph/few lines of your story in the post here to show readers what your story is about.

Highscores

Play the game according to the challenge rules and in Adventure mode.
Post in this topic a screenshot of your Win Screen*, right after the ceremony or your Leaderboard record.* Also include a text version of your score with the submission to allow for error checking.
Submit by 12:00 noon CEST, 03/05/17) (Or 05/03/17 for those using MM/DD/YY)
(click here for your local time equivalent [www.timebie.com])
NOTE: Only one score will be accepted - only one submission for each player please. If you wish to enter a new score, please edit your initial entry and make it clear which score you are submitting, and add the word "EditGreenlight" to the entry so we can see immediately when the result needs updating.
*If you forget to screenshot the Win screen, you can also enter with a screenshot of your Leaderboards: Go to Main Menu > Leaderboards > Local > click the entry that matches your submission game > screenshot those details.

Game Version

416+ (for GoG players) or 435+ (for Steam players)

Beta game testers are reminded to avoid potential leaking of information unwittingly and are advised to turn off the Beta content when taking part in the challenge. New characters or expeditions are still prohibited prior to the DLC release.

If currently playing in a beta version, you will probably want to change profile before altering your beta settings - and if you have a limited net usage, I'd recommend against switching back and forth too much as the game downloads data each time.

Story ideas:

Who might these individual challenges come from - are there any experts we know about? What escapades will your crew get up to to prove themselves? And is it really better to be Aggressive or Friendly?

For the previous challenge - Challenge #68: Rule 24(b) - click here

[The BlackVision]

Will also post another 'Pinkerton's Advice' in the main challenge within a day if anyone wants advice on what teams they could use - will update the post when it's added.

[AbbeyManuel]

Great writing! This is a perfect representation of how the International Society must have heard about and responded to the Emperor's Challenge for the first time.

To celebrate the recent expansion announcement and the support of this community challenge, I'm going to raffle a free Emperor's Challenge expansion key among all participants who will obtain at least a Bronze medal for this challenge. I'll do that right after the results post at the end of the challenge. I'll post the winner then and will be sending the key to you through Steam chat.

glhf!

[Reiga]

Quick, rob Manuel for the key!

[The BlackVision]

Bring back Weng Tsu! ;)

[BlackFire]

Heh. There's gonna be a lot of competition for that one key. Bring it on, friends.

[The BlackVision]

By the way, Liort and I are doing 1 Friendly and 1 Aggressive between us, so both sides have chances of veteran support.

[Noctua Spell]

Ursprungligen skrivet av The BlackVision:

By the way, Liort and I are doing 1 Friendly and 1 Aggressive between us, so both sides have chances of veteran support.

Overall score doesn't matter anyway right?
"whichever Attitude has the most total entries at the end of the challenge gives an extra 1500 to that teams' entries."
Therefore, it doesn't matter how high a score is. Each entry is considered equal :D

[The BlackVision]

Correct, but a lot of people like to follow what some of the veterans do, so putting it out there that it really is a free-for-all ;)

[The BlackVision]

Pinkerton's Advice available here. *MASSIVE SPOILERS ALERT*

[Commander Felix]

Ursprungligen skrivet av The BlackVision:

Pinkerton's Advice available here. *MASSIVE SPOILERS ALERT*

I dont need that Advice to get bronze ^^
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=914369497
4603+3500 (14 treasures)=8103..close, but the target was Bronze, and I have it, only that counts!

Had to take this picture because the end screen was a bit buggy you could only see Maria on the picture which is not enough.....
I have to say Im very proud of myself, I tried something new and gaved Kwame a try as Leader and went on Status which went great when you go Friendly...
Im not so happy about the 3rd expedition..I had less luck there and only could archive 2 treasures and the last one was horrible too, there I had the zombies and not Baba Yaga (which I hoped)
For those who are intrested, here all the perks:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=914365941
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=914365889
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=914365809

[Commander Felix]

I wanted to buy the DLC anyway, but I will give it a try on the raffle

[Maniafig]

http://i.imgur.com/z1ZM6KB.png (Played on GoG, version 4.16)

7112 Renown + (20 * 250 Renown) = 12112 Renown

More than enough for a Bronze medal.

It took some retries to get the Executioner's Axe in Saxon Kings, but I was determined to since it pairs so well with Molly's captain perk. I also got Harry's card during the first expedition, though only after doing the Scout check.

Carribean went extremely well, I got 5 treasures and the 2 collect per aggressive win bonus, though I did carelessly lose 1 Resolve during the boss encounter when Charles got angered by the smuggler boss and then shot twice in a row.

Egypt didn't go nearly as well though, I was relieved to succeed on a 55% tool-booster Orchid run and getting the +2 collect in nature nodes bonus but also failed two crucial survivalist checks with a level 3 Survivalist Charles, cutting my expedition short due to stacking hunger penalties with some fog of war left on the map.

I decided to play things safe from there and go to the Highlands, in which Charles once again failed the crucial Tactician roll at ~90% to succeed which locked me out of the Muffles encounter that spawned. Otherwise things wound up real easy, given my pumped up equipment and the Axe boosts.

Finished things off with Mali hoping to get a lot of Collect and getting the Star of Africa, but Virginia spawned instead. Not much else to say about it.

Molly's captain perk really came through, she was generating collects at a mad rate thanks to all the Rogue perks I got. I probably didn't need the Axe effect or to play things so safe, but at least it's enough to enter the raffle. :p

[The Pirate Piggie]

Well, I did the best I could and for once i was able to complete a challenge :) I will try my best to upload a screenshot if i can

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198013976420/screenshots/

[abombzy]

Friendly Status run - 9305 + 18*250 = 13,805

http://imgur.com/a/NsNq5

Pretty surprised this is only good enough for Bronze considering it's the best score I've had in a long while. Seems like this would've been a high silver or even gold in any other challenge.

Few things didn't really fall into place like I'd hoped...like the 75% viking horn roll failed and I got the leprachaun instead and the secret boost campfire card didn't show up till the 5th expedition.

Should we be counting the RE:IS Membership treasure? It doesn't show up on the win screen...BUT it is a treasure we collect. Anyway it's included in my score posted above.

[The BlackVision]

Ursprungligen skrivet av adambomb76:

Should we be counting the RE:IS Membership treasure? It doesn't show up on the win screen...BUT it is a treasure we collect. Anyway it's included in my score posted above.

Good point - hadn't thought of it. Unfortunately, can't really include it or Origin of the Species 2 as there's no way to tell if someone has OOTS2 on the win-screen, and it'd be a bit odd to include the one and not the other. (and they weren't calculated in when setting the score boundaries) *See below - both are included as another 250 points, though the OOTS needs additional proof.