We all love runners. I love runners so much, it's been in my forum signature for YEARS now.

So, I guess this time the game decided to mess with my head a bit.

I started a new tribe (my 5th and final slot) since my other tribes are more or less finished. It didn't take long to notice that I had not one, not two, but THREE runners!

Hurray?

Nope. One of the runners is a Yellow heathen and two are Red heathens.

You guys... if you ever start a tribe and see any of the Red or Yellow heathens running, just save yourself a lot of aggravation/frustration and START OVER. Because I'm here to tell you that the game becomes pretty much unplayable. It's absolutely horrible. It's like having your village overrun with Rascal children.

I'm keeping it going just because it's unique, but it's not really progressing. The only reason the villagers haven't died is because My fire went out and I can't get it re-lit. I can't get my statue or hut finished. It's just sad.

What really makes me mad is that I spent about an hour picking out my first villagers, making them all Learners under 20. What a waste of such a promising tribe!

I'm not complaining though... at least it's something to write about.

I have two runners. Funny thing though, they weren't runners as heathens. They became runners after they converted. So I was surprised to see that they were runners. Or maybe I didn't get to see it because they were always bathing in the pools.

I think the game resets the heathen's stats (age, interests, etc.) when they convert. The reason I think this is because of how old they are upon conversion. Of course, there's no way to actually check what their interests are, unless it's something like running that can be observed.

I actually took a very long time to start my tribe with 3 runners. So, imagine my surprise when I found that 1 of the yellow masks was also a runner! All I can say is it takes 3 to beat 1!

When i make up my initial tribe i scroll through and only pick ones that are runners, except for the one child i choose. Its always helpful to start a new game with the runners....

Unfortunately Runners are not as helpful in VV5 as are Learners. In VV4 I always pick Runners, but in VV5 you get a lot more out of Learners. If you pick Runners, you don't get a lot of benefit from them in the beginning of the game while you're waiting for them to master a skill or to get enough tech points.

For me, I really don't like runners, but I love the Learners. In VV IV, I discovered how great the Learners were and how hard it is to keep a runner on task long enough to even get them to adept. You have to be constantly putting them back at their job. I know you do with the non-runners too, but at least with them they are usually just wandering near the job site whereas the runners are off and gone.

If I could have picked a tribe of all learners, that would be best in my opinion.

I don't mind the runners so much as I do the ones that dislike running! arrggghhh! I'm always checking them to see if they're sick. haha!

I too have taken lots of time to pick just the right tribe with an equal mix of abilities. However, for my latest game, I chose all villagers (1 kid, 3 women, 1 man) without any skills BUT all in their early 20's. They all built up skills over time, AND when I finally got my Grant Youth power, they were all still in their 50's! So I had plenty of time to increase skills to become JOATS without worrying who was going to die first. Gotta love the young'uns! :-)


By the way, I leave my blue heathens pretty much alone for a lonnnng time - at least until I have my own population of 8 or 10 adults (over 14). Then I take turns with each of them "talking" to the blue heathens. Even if they have just a little tiny bit of devotion - you can always train them at the statue later on! It worked for me!