Best Way to Get Strong-Backed Labour

I’ve decided to acquire a zubmarine.
So as the title says, I’m trying to hire the necessary laborers. I’m not worried about cost, but I do value my time.
Will it take longer to grind for influence items, then trade those in in the Bazaar Side-streets? Or should I go to Wilmot’s end and work there?

I personally ground in Wilmot’s End for my Strong-Backed Labour, but if I’m not mistaken the fastest way to get them is to grind your Docks and Orient connections up to 30, and favour the dock-gangs when their conflict card turns up. This will net you 4 Strong Backed Labour each time. You can also become a Rat Catcher to speed things up a little bit. Getting them through converting Stolen Correspondence isn’t bad either if you can get your Compromising Documents through the Velocipede Squad or Foreign Office.
edited by Sara Hysaro on 6/8/2013

I found it faster to hire from teh sidestreets than to do anything else. Plus I had to have 12 more to move the black edifice after the rats attacked. So it takes some doing.

Be a ratcacher.

Wilmot’s End will generally be the worst way to obtain anything. Using War of Assassins, and then cashing in your Dramatic Tension at Wilmot’s End will be slightly better, but it’s still going to cost you 34 actions per Strong-Backed Labour.

Using the Bazaar Sidestreets (after building up supplies via Iron Box, Unfinished Business and conversion) will yield a Strong-Backed Labour per 17.4 actions (proportionately).

Using the Docks/Orient conflict card is more efficient if you need large quantities of Strong-Backed Labour, but it might require some investment.

Getting a connection up to 30 requires 465 CPs, and Connected: The Docks isn’t one of the easy ones. You can boost it by +5 CPs/action at the Carnival until 10, then use the connection item for +25 CPs/action (at a cost of 0.5E of glim) until 20, and then you’re largely looking for opportunity cards (which, depending on the card, will yield +5 to +15 CPs/action) until 30.

Connected: The Orient is more straightforward. You can raise that by meeting with the Gracious Widow in Spite at a rate of +10 CPs/action (with a bonus of 36 x Jade Fragment each time).

So, 47 actions to get Connected: The Orient to level 30 plus an action to play the conflict card means that if you need 4 x Strong-Backed Labour (and we assume you already have your Docks connection), each Labour is costing you 12 actions.

That’s worthwhile even if you only need three, but at two or less (or if you don’t have Dock connections and you don’t need enough Labour to make the investment worth it), you’re better off heading to the Sidestreets.

My suggestion is that you simply by the tramp steamer and do all the over sea stuff with it will becoming a rat catcher, you’ll eventually get enough strong backed labour and there are less than 3 cards the zubmarine is useful in.

Also the easiest way to get strong backed labour is actually to invite a friend through the premise at the bazaar card, you’ll get one if they accept.

I need somewhere around 40 strong-backed labor for everything, so I think I’ll have to go with the bazaar and sidestreets. I’ll probably use the labyrinth to get an extra 60 compromising documents, which should make things easier. Thank you.
Also: what other way is there to boost the connection to the Docks? I have ~20 right now and have stagnated. It could take several real-time weeks to get enough conflict cards to get to 30.

It’s not just conflict cards you can utilize. There’s the Tournament of Weasels card, and the Docks card itself. You can also head into prison for a while if you don’t want to rely on cards at all.

How Dangerous are you? If you can use equipment to make your Dangerous 90 or less, you can improve your Docks connections at Wolfstack Docks by taking a break from duelling. You’ll need Wounds 2 and Running Battle 5. It gives five change points for your connection, along with 15 Cryptic Clues and three bottles of Morelways. With your connected at around 20 you’ll need to do this about 50 times. If you’re too Dangerous for that storylet, you’ll either have to rely on opportunity cards or compose Patriotic Adventures/Folk Songs at Court for around 45 change points per work.

In general, the best ways to raise connections are listed here. Not that I had anything to do with that.

If you still have access to Court, I wouldn’t recommend New Newgate. You can improve your Docks connections there almost as effectively while also earning money to help with all those Whirring Contraptions and Bejewelled Lenses.
edited by Flyte on 6/12/2013

Yeah, the Court would be better if it’s available. I was just listing options available to anyone.