by Greg | March 21st, 2011
Dutch geographer. Hired by his cartographer friend Mercator to explore far-off lands and make a map of the entire world.
Age: 23
Sail: 11
Battle: 1
Leadership: 78
Courage: 62
Seamanship: 92
Swordsman: 53
Knowledge: 86
Charm: 90
Intuition: 82
Skills:
Celestial Navigation
Cartography
Ernst starts out in Amsterdam with $5000, a Caravela Latina and a first mate Hans Starten (Sail:10 Battle:2 -Celestial Navigation) all given to him by Mercator. He should refit his ship to minimum crew (all sailors) and no guns to make the exploring voyage to the northwest for the “Saber-toothed cat” (see Discoveries section, if it isn’t here, start the game again till it’s there – randomly chosen). Be sure to have SOME lookout, otherwise you won’t be able to see the village. The “Great Auk” discovery may also be available at the southern tip of Greenland. You can stop in Forel if necessary. Bring the discoveries to Bordeaux and Professor Mordes and look for an adventurers ship. Bring the maps to Mercator and when leaving Amsterdam, the 14 year old girl Paula shows up and asks to board the ship. Paula wants to find her homeland and tells her life story starting in Seville and melts Hans’ heart. They let her aboard and continue their voyage.
Ernst is an adventurer and must increase Adventure fame to win the game. At this point, his fame should be approx. 2000. The Governor/General of Holland should be looking for him (for discoveries) and he can gain rank and play a slower game if desired, or ignore the Governor and play the fastest game (which is the best thing to do, because when turning discoveries to him you won’t get money or adventure fame – things you both need).
Nothing will happen to Ernst through his quest except the occasional comment by Hans and Paula about their journeys. They should take several planned excursions to map areas and discover items. Trips can be classified as:
(try to sail the ‘dark’ map parts, where you haven’t been yet) The North Atlantic – around the eastern coast of North America to Africa and north to Europe.
The South Atlantic – down the coast of Africa then west to the tip of South America (do the Amazon river) and north to Europe.
Asia – Over the top of Asia then down the coastline by Japan, India, the middle east then the eastern coast of Africa and around to Europe.
Pacific – Over the top of North America then down the west coasts of North and South America then “around the Horn” to Europe.
Australia – Around Africa then east along the southern polar regions to Australia. Around Australia + Indonesia, then across the Pacific to the horn and to Europe.
The Nile – This is optional, but is nice to gain fame.
Actually this is the easiest scenario, as you just can sail around with a small ship for ages and you’ll report your findings to Mercator and Mordes every now and then.
When a certain percentage of the world is mapped, Mercator will congratulate Ernst and finish the map. (although this is your quest, it isn’t necessary to finish the game). If you have done the ‘6-sails’, you could just go sailing to parts you haven’t been (dark parts) to gain fame and have Hans say his thing (see next paragraph).
During the final journeys, Hans will comment that Paula and Ernst should get married. In the final scenario, Hans will say that he wishes to see Zipangu, which has been hidden for the entire game. This is the clue to proceed to Zeiton (or Hanoi) where they will be told that Zipangu is to the northeast. Now Nagasaki and Sakia can be discovered. The shopkeepers will confirm this, then Ernst will comment that Paula looks like the people of this land. They question her and she remembers a “Yellow Sea” in her homeland. They question shopkeepers in Zeiton and are told that a yellow “river” exists to the north. Up this river, the city of Changan can now be discovered. In the Noble building in this town Paula finds her lost home and family.
Ernst invites Paula to continue to sail with him and she agrees as the game ends.
If you read the ending scene, you’ll notice that Ernst says he would like to finish his task: making a complete world map. This is a bit dumb if you already did it. And by the way, wasn’t this your original draft of sailing the oceans (and not Paula).
This character story line is rather dull… So i use it as a handlicap to play trading and later on Pirate to round up 10 mates to have gunnery skills before sailing around the world get the seaman up to max then give them a boat for battle…
I agree that the story is lacking for this character and those incessant comments from Hans every time you enter the harbor is quite annoying. Ok, it isn’t every time you enter the harbor…it just seems like it. Ernst only has two “events” in his story, the one at 2000 fame in adventure and the second at around 40,000 fame in adventure. My main peeve with Ernst is that a cartographer shouldn’t have a problem finding ports that anyone else can find, but he is blind to three of them!! That probably wouldn’t have irked me as much if two of the ports hadn’t been the Japanese ports.
I like playing him. It’s fun to take over the world. Through piracy.
I usually manage to get his first 4 or 5 rises in rank by Fame In Trade, protecting the fame value probably of most of his discoveries, anyway. It helps to know that while your rank is still low, Buy Goods missions from the Guild always call for one of 6 kinds of goods–Carpet, Art, Silver, Copper Ore, Tin Ore, or Iron Ore. Thus, once I get him a fleet well stocked with all 6, he can pass many successuive Buy Goods missions and rapidly raise Fame In Trade–even though that may look more appropriate for Ali Vezas.