Nigel Overstreet wrote:

Lawrence Growe wrote:

But you can easily ensure 100% success rate in Polythreme with very little investment

That's hardly so. You can invest in a luck check if you're tired of waiting for cards, but if you fail those then you've put in 12 actions and a lot of investment with nothing to show for it. As I've done twice now.

Grind romantic notions and surface silk scraps, and then bribe your way with them. Once they start asking for more expensive stuff, simply use the cards that raise what you need, or trade via the built in storylets. Once you get the first part of the 3 part storylets (A Guided Tour of Polythreme and A Little Spy Work), you unlock two cards that are a sure way to progress (Fractious Furniture and The Zailors at Polythreme's Harbour). In both cases, you can get 100% chance of going through. If you're waiting for the sure-fire cards, spend your extra actions grinding romantic notions and surface silk scrap, as it's very profitable.

Here is how you do it without Furniture and Sailors: Use the Bribe option and supply clay men with Surface Silk until the price goes up to Romantic Notions. Use Bribe with Romantic Notions option two or three times: this will get you up to 8 in at least one quality and hopefully about the same in the other. Having done that, use the conversion option (buttonhole a Clay Overseer or pull a mask) to dispose of the quality you don't need completely. This should raise the quality you are aiming for up to 11 or almost so with at least several actions to spare before you run out of Unnatural Exuberance.

I used this method to run about 11 cycles in a row and did not fail a single time. It doesn't always go to 13, but virtually guarantees you will get 12.
edited by Lawrence Growe on 5/8/2012