Just wondering if there is an advantage to getting your chief going right away? I usually wait until I have 10-12 or more adults working before I try to find the chief. Having the magic food is great, but I usually don't run out because I double or triple up the kids on mushrooms. Does "directing work" make up for the tech points and the construction that the adult would be doing if he/she wasn't the chief? It feels like they're just standing there doing nothing.

The only time I get the chief early is if it happens to be one of the kids or the baby from the original 8 villagers, because they can then get firewood, direct work, make the magic food and still grab collectibles & mushrooms.

"Directing work" I believe is more effective with a larger tribe - the chief's "Influence" is supposed to increase with the size of the tribe. A child chief is definitely more useful at the start, but no, magic food doesn't even cover an hour of normal-speed play for a starting tribe, and the loss of work-hours is just not worth it at that stage, in my humble opinion. Which contradicts a post I've made in the past on the subject, but whatever.

I've done it both ways and in my opinion it makes absolutely no difference to the eventual outcome.

Personally, I find the 'directing work' only works for the maybe this is a spoiler...........




Other than that, he's good for teaching kids, but that is only once per 24 hours. The food is good, if you are really struggling, have the cheif make food, pause game for 24 hours, have him make food again, etc, until you have enough to keep the tribe going for a bit. You can also pause, train kids, pause again. which is helpful when the tribe is big so you don't have so many slackers to train later

I tend to have a chief if it's a child. If i'm low on food, I pause the game for 24hrs for the next magic food the chief brings. But I do use the children a lot for the mushies.

As mentioned, the chief is not too helpful for directing work early on, no. Later on, having a chief is not so much of a drag on the village, so my opinion is that he's worse than useless in the early game.

As Tuna said, it of course makes no difference to the eventual outcome, but it can make survival in the short term more difficult.

In the early game I'll only let the kids try on the robe. Only when I've got rid of the sharks will I try the rest of the villagers.

When I started my first game, I hadn't read the forums or strategy guides. I was just randomly dragging my people to various parts of the island to check it out (after assigning people to each of the tasks necessary-food, shelter, research, etc.). I didn't know what the robe was until I dragged my villager onto it and, of course, she became the chief, on the first try, without my knowing that it was even an option. Naturally, since I had *just* started the game, this was a pain in the behind because now she didn't do anything "useful". So, I proceeded to "investigate" the island and discovered she could make food! Hooray, this is perfect for my flegling village! Aww, she can only do it every 24 hours. It didn't occur to me, at that point, that I could pause the game and wait until she could make more food but I probably wouldn't have done it anyway since I always get OCD when I start a new VV game (lol). Anyhow, it is my personal opinion that finding/making a chief right off the bat is not the best way to do it. As one previous poster noted, it takes away a worker and that result is not worth the 'Directing Work' you get from a chief. I just thought I'd put my two-cents in.

I like the child chief... I will restart the game over and over until I get a child chief. This gives the chief a dual set of skills -- that of a child picking up stuff and of the chief directing and making things happen. By the time the kid is older, your population is big enough to cover for the worker you never got used to using in the first place. Child Chief. That's my ticket. The younger the better. Helps with that 50 year award too.

By the way... chiefs have personalities of their own too... some direct work better than others. The one I got now (second chief-not a child when he started) stays on tasks better than any I have had...