Where are people getting their artifacts?

[Drogo]

One thing I've noticed in my 50 or so turns is that other players seem to be acquiring more artifacts than I am. I'm trying to figure out why. It seems really expensive to divine a random artifact and then divine a location which may be on the other side of the map or already with another kingdom. My suspicion is that people are issuing more 978 orders than I normally have been doing. Aside from stealing artifacts do players throw some resources behind using agents to search for UE or using 720 orders and stopping on non-PC squares?

And is acquiring artifacts a priority for in-game strategy reasons or do the status points account for much of their value?

[Ry Vor]

All good questions. Some players make getting artifacts a priority. With Exploratory now the standard, it takes a bit longer than before. I suspect communication / info sharing is why some kingdoms / players accumulate them.

I want to finish the 2nd Cycle changes on the table but in 3rd Cycle we'll refine how HP's divine artifacts to not include those already owned, divined, or possibly be region-specific. Also artifact trading will have some limitations, like a minimum amount of gold to trade. We'll also have more artifacts, identified by quality which will match the guardian, and the encounters will be more deadly. Again, a Fall of Rome player will have a good idea of what I mean.