Twice-Born Warlord--when is the downtime?

[A]

I just finished the battle with the Numerians. Armag's routed and now I have to hunt him. I also have the candlemere quest. I kinda have an itch to do my kingdom stuff, I'm told that there's a really long downtime after the barbarian invasion, does it mean that I have to finish all the quests like usual instead of returning home to manage my territory just after the battle?

[Martialis]

It's important that you return to your castle right after the battle, because there is a conversation, followed by two event cards you have to start in order for you to be able to find Armag's tomb. It takes a month to complete them, so you can finish the Tristian part of the quest, rank up your advisors, go exploring, etc. In my latest game, I spent the time exploring some side areas that I had skipped over. Don't delay going to the tomb though once it is possible.

As an aside, it is HILARIOUS how pissed Lady J gets when you don't do her quest first. Which I suppose is understandable, since it royally messes her up.

To more directly answer your question, there is a lot of time after you finish Armag's tomb and the next Bald Hilltop event, and even more before the next chapter starts. My first game, I thought it was broken because I kept passing time and nothing was happening. Good time to rank people up though.

[White Knight]

What it means is that you will go between panicking over which way to look, and wandering the map fighting two goblins at a time for the random encounters.

Woo-hoo! Two leather armours and a couple of short bows... who's yer daddy, baby?

I'm loving this game but the pacing is dreadful. Good game design should include something in-between "HOLY @#$%!!!!!!" and "... please let this end... "

You weren't lied to OP, I think just about every chapter devolves into dreadfully boring (thus the need for a "skip time" button?) periods of waiting for the next chapter to begin?

I think I'm doing chapter five now... there were some real snooze-fests in there. Of course, I'm probably doin' it rong, but I like to make an effort to be somewhat efficient with my time, and avoid the "skip time" button as much as possible.

My guess would be, less boring = more skip time? Presumably more hassles too?

[D1PST1CK]

Do "Betrayers Flight" next (ignoring it will lead to more kingdom problems), then you can look for Armag's Tomb without too much stress.

How high is the highest perception-skill among your chars?

To answer your question: The next chapter will start at "An Ancient Curse, Part 6", so you'll have a downtime of more than one and a half year.