So, I'm starting to get the hang of playing Rimworld and dropping into my old save game as well. Well, for one... I finally figured out who the hell the bastard League of West Cobo were... they had taken up all the good stuff on the map, and seemed to have pinched all my livestock as well!

Well... I guess it would come as no surprise that the League of West Cobo is me! Well... normally, I would name my colony something like Haven... or some variation of it. But for some reason, this time I had just gone with the default name and ended with something completely alien to me! Well, that is one less opposition tribe to deal with!

Anyway, just as I was starting to figure out who everyone was... the game hit me with a livestock plague! Well, seeing as I had two groups of caravans out (a trading caravan and a raiding caravan), I wasn't really sure that I could have all the affected livestock treated and avoiding the spread of the plague as well... plus keeping the camp running! In the end, I opted for the ruthless route, and penned all the affected animals together and let nature take its course. I ended up losing a few animals, but I had more than enough of them anyway... thinning out the crowd did make for a slightly easier management transition for me!

So, remember at the end of the last Rimworld post, I had a quest to wipe out a tribe of 7 raiders in exchange for a valuable persona core that I would need to construct the AI for the spaceship that would get me off this planet. However, my best fighters were out on a trading caravan, and so I formed up a raiding party to carry out the hit job.... but I wasn't really sure that they could carry it off without casualties... even with 6 of them.

In the end, I arranged for the trading caravan and raiding party to rendezvous at the raid location, join up and hit with maximum firepower. It meant that the trading route was cut short... but that was preferable to a botched raid.

So, arriving on scene. only 7 fighters and no base defences. In the end, I think I probably could have pulled this off without the additional fighters from the trade caravan. However, it doesn't really hurt to come to a knife-fight with overwhelming firepower!

... and overwhelming firepower it was. With 10 fighters, I had them out-numbered, out-gunned and out-teched! I came expecting base defences, and ended up with tribespeople rushing me with bows and arrows! I had laser rifles, miniguns, sniper rifles and rail guns...

Needless to say, it was a slaughter... on a few of them managed to get into their bow and arrow range. The rest were slaughtered by the longer range and heavier hitting weaponry of my attack team. Plus, they were in the open doing a rush on my prepared cover behind trees and rocks. I would have felt a little bit sorry for them if only...

... one of the little bastards managed to clip Cave (one of my top figher/traders) in the eye with a lucky arrow strike! Okay, no holds barred... slaughter them all!

... and slaughter them all we did. Easily picking up the persona core as reward... plus...

... one prisoner who wasn't completely shredded by the hail of lead and charged particles. Actually, I'm pretty surprised that they managed to survive at all! Except, they were in a pretty bad way... wounds everywhere and losing blood like crazy. I was surprised that they managed to last all the way back to the base camp without dying... and Cave was lying next time being treated by the same doctors in the raid party.

It turns out that the prisoner (Alligator) would become a decent doctor to recruit... or a melee fighter. But, I have avoided equipping melee fighters, but that will soon change I think. I will need decent line fighters to keep the incoming enemies away from my shooters and snipers... but melee is soooo soooo messy and liable to end up with dead or dismembered colonists.

Soon after my raiding party returned back to camp, I sent out another trading caravan to the South and East to trade with other settlements that I didn't manage to reach earlier.

... and of course, no sooner had the caravan left... a band of 14 raiders arrived on the outskirts of my little village. These guys were better armed than the last raiders that I had recently slaughtered, but still only with relatively primitive handguns and machine pistols. Plus, I was sitting behind my base defences, and I had recently gotten hold of the critical reinforced barrels that put my mortars back into action... something that is quite critical in these base defence moments as the enemy raiding party will stop and camp out for a bit before attacking. Sometimes, they will use that time to set up their own mortar position and in that case, you need to hit them fast...

The raiders decided to gather near a little forested and grassed area... perfect for dropping a bunch of incendiary mortar rounds. Interestingly enough, the raiders still stayed relatively well packed whilst running away from the fire... but some of them got set on fire, and one of the raiders fell unconscious due to their burns and dropped to the ground in the middle of the fire! Ouch, that would be a pretty bad way to go... but in the end, he was one of the ones that I managed to capture... burnt but alive.

Meanwhile, the bulk of my fighters spread out near the base defence, with a couple of my attack animals... bears and wolves that would play the part of melee fighters and slow the incoming raiders whilst the colonists peppered them full of holes with the ranged weaponry. Unfortunately, it would also mean that many of the animals were in the firing line... perhaps next time, I would have to adjust the tactics so that the animals would attack from the flanks or the back instead of being caught in the crossfire!

The foes made their advance... again running over relatively open ground to attack well fortified positions... and again, it was an absolute slaughter. They never even made it close to firing range of their less powerful weapons and they were cut down... their morale broke and the survivors ran, and I decided to not pursue. I figured it was better to capture any fallen survivors as prisoners in order to try and recruit them instead of pursuing the runners.

We managed to capture three prisoners (added to the previous prisoner, Alligator) for a total of four prisoners. Given that my holding cells were capable of holding two prisoners... I had to convert two living quarters into temporary prisoner holding cells. Well, there was nothing different... just a much more luxurious holding cell!

Our first prisoner recruiting candidate, Corbett, looks to be a great soldier. High affinity for shooting and melee.... and that would also make them a perfect peacetime hunter. A milder affinity for mining means that when there are no mining tasks, I could make them a hauler/cleaner... vital skills for keeping the camp running smoothly and cleanly! I just wonder if his preference for nudity over clothing might be a little tricky for wearing armour...

Prisoner number two (Lexi, no nickname) is a complete recluse and glutton.... sigh, they might be a touch difficult to integrate with the rest of the colonists... but on the other hand, if I can keep them happy via other means that don't involve social interaction then they should remain fine... and it helps that they seem to LOVE food, so that might be the way in. At least they don't cause problems deliberately. It appears that they will make a good crafter which means that I can put them to work making items for export, and manufacturing armour and weapons for domestic use!

Finally, prisoner number three (Juliette, again no nickname). A researcher, doctor and famer in the making with a touch of soldiering skills. This should be an easy integration into the colony, and she will bring in a nice array of skills! However, the creepy breathing trait might cause some problems with the rest of the crew!

As I've spent a bit more time with Rimworld and this particular crew... I've started to remember why I stopped playing it. I guess I will go a bit more into that in my next Rimworld post, but it is a particular thing that affects all open world survival/management games. A pitfall that not many games manage to... manage! Well, a post for next time then!

I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x

Handy Crypto Tools

Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
Kucoin: My second choice in exchanges, many tokens listed here that you can't get on Binance!
FTX: Regulated US-based exchange with some pretty interesting and useful discounts on trading and withdrawal fees for FTT holders. Decent fiat on-ramp as well!
MXC: Listings of lots of interesting tokens that are usually only available on DEXs. Avoid high gas prices!
Huobi: One of the largest exchanges in the world, some very interesting listings and early access sales through Primelist.
Gate.io: If you are after some of the weirdest and strangest tokens, this is one of the easiest off-chain places to get them!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.
Stoic: A USD maximisation bot trading on Binance using long-term long strategies, powered by the AI/human system of Cindicator.
StakeDAO: Decentralised pooled staking of PoS assets.
Poloniex: One of the older regulated exchanges that has come into new ownership. I used to use it quite a lot, but have since stopped.
Bitfinex: Ahhh... another oldie, but a goodie exchange. Most noted for the close affiliation with USDT and the Basic "no-KYC" tier!