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Second win! It seems that going Tharkas > Mrykka > Draug > Heru > Myrkka > Mau has been working for me so far. By the time I get to Mau, the Mau mostly like Zorana well enough to vote for her without too much fuss, and I find that the Heru/Draug side of the system has rather high checks for making good first impressions.

Zorana's hand in marriage, I was initially wary of engaging her to Fire, but turns out that 1) I like his design 2) it wasn't as risky a decision as I thought it would be.

Mood-wheel wise, I feel like the right side of the wheel generally has more threats than the left side? Though I guess that makes sense, since the bottom/right side of the wheel has Zorana be the most isolated or in situations more likely for her to be physically harmed, so those are probably the ones that make the most sense to stage an assassination for. 

Finally managed to win the election after seeing some advice on the other thread of how to go about winning the election

As I had put it to my friends, "high speech with low int is winning me the day so far".  I generally focused on getting high enough Empathy/Etiquette and then Rhetoric early enough before working too much on the other skills, since being able to talk to people well in a game about forging alliances is never a bad idea.

But yeah, as it turns out, having a competent cabinet really does make everything easier, since it's too time-consuming to get Zorana's own knowledge up to par compared to just hiring someone good. On my first run, I wanted to hold off offering cabinet positions until I met everyone, but then realized that the game is too short for that. I feel like prioritizing getting a good Science and Bureaucracy person as early as possible helps mechanically, though having a Commerce person early ended up making a lot of narrative things easier as well. 

I haven't been especially inclined to offer Zorana's hand in marriage to anyone, even her friends. I'm honestly super suspicious of her friends even though they've been nothing but helpful and kind to her, but that's probably just a me issue.

Pet choice absolutely ended up shaping how I approached things, since knowing which moods I can access the easiest had me planning out which skills/electors to go for first. The Hawk is my favorite pet, but the Viper is probably going to be my go-to since I prefer focusing on social stats. 

Enjoying the game so far! Ever since I got the beta, it's basically all I've been thinking about. I like how much more involved it is compared to Long Live the Queen, what with Zorana having to travel on top of there being so many more moods.

Feedback wise, is it possible to add a text bubble or list somewhere of which moods boost/penalize which skills on the mood changing phase? The skills page have the ? button which tells you, so it would be nice for an equivalent of it on the mood changing phase if possible to reduce having to switch tabs to cross-reference which moods boost which skill. Otherwise, that's really my only biggest inconvenience so far.

I didn't realize only the first two acts was available, and I got so immersed in the game that I didn't realize I finished Act 2 until it was over! The characters are super lovable, and the game is a mix of lighthearted and serious. I could listen to the music for days and the art style is amazing! Definitely looking forward to how the rest of the game goes!

(Saffron also has to be by far my favorite character, I love his design and he's just a nice guy!)