[SPOILERS] Tales from the Enchanted Forest - Thessa of the Ljosalfar

[Nyktorion]

Turn 40

I was greeted by this (at the moment irrelevant event) when opening the turn:



The workers started their work on the farm 1NW of Hyll, and production in Evermore got switched to another worker. The situation at the end of the turn:



This turn's point increases can be explained as follows:

• Cahir Abbey, Torrolerial, and Mardoc's capital grew to size 6
  
• Sir Yellow got a tech this turn. He got his last tech in T15 (!), and had an average of 16 GNP (rival worst), translating to 14 bpt since then, getting him a total of around 350 beakers for that tech. Also, that tech was still an ancient era one. The only ancient tech which is that expensive would be hunting (460 beakers), so maybe he got it with the help of an event giving 25% beakers towards the current research goal?
  

The graphs confirm that last turn's warrior was Sir Yellow's. In another graph, I noticed interesting spikes in WarriorKnight's production:



Could one of them be due to the philosophical bonus on elder councils? The other one could be just due to the God King bonus kicking in, together with a tile reassignment for production empasis.

One last interesting bit can be found in the demo:



Notice the 18k rival best soldier count, which was only 17k a turn ago. So the rival best was not Irgy all along, but switched to someone currently having 6 pop at some point. The graphs say that someone is not WarriorKnight or Sir Yellow, so it must be Mardoc (who then has a total of 5 warriors now, so it's not too bad yet).

[Nyktorion]

Turn 41

I just hit enter this turn.

WarriorKnight, Irgy, and Sir Yellow each got a tech this turn.

WK had his last tech at turn 34, so that would fit with a tech between 150 and 200 beakers, like Fishing for his new coastal town, or animal husbandry, or festivals.

Irgy had his last techs at turns 34 and 38 (which was possibly for free), so I'd guess he got a not too expensive second column tech, or crafting.

Sir Yellow must obviously have gotten one of the two recent techs for free. I also noticed that he can't have gotten Hunting, since that would have registered as an additional 2k soldier count increase. So, he was probably switching research halfway then to take that long for this tech.

The demo:



We have a total soldier count increase of 7k this turn, in particular the rival worst grew to 11k. So probably two scouts were built on top of that (research times were too short for one of these 2k to be hunting, unless free techs skew the picture again here).
What I also found of interest was that the rival best GNP dropped back to 32.

Now that I will be greeted by the completion of Education next turn, it is time to think about the further teching plans. My next priorities are:

• Animal husbandry (two more nice tiles for my cities to work, and visibility of horses)
  
• Mysticism (God King, elder councils, and prereq. for "our" religion)
  
• Hunting (Another happy resource, prereq. for "our" religion)
  
• Way of the forests (start growing ancient forests, nice culture and happy bonuses, maybe holy city)
  

I am not completely decided on the order of these techs. Currently, I am in favor of starting with animal husbandry, to get more food and some prod and thus workers and settlers rolling in our cities (i.e. some classical early game priorities of BTS, which I also believe to be my priorities now that the silks and cottages have fixed the FFH-specific problem of slow worker techs).

[Nyktorion]

Turn 42

Education is finished!

Hyll's farm got finished, as well, and one worker is free for action this turn. I'lll build a road on the farm tile now, the two worker turns invested into it will be compensated by the faster movement back over Hyll's hill.



Foreign news:

• Somebody got a great prophet (Sciz? and then the Scientist was Irgy?); we might see the founding of a religion rather soon...
  
• Sciz got a second city (consistent with the demo numbers for land area)
  
• Sir Yellow got 18 more points - that would be a second city (I can't see it on the diplo screen, though) and yet another tech; so I don't know yet how to really interpret that
  
• Sir Yellow changed his civics, indicating that he has agriculture, calendar, and mysticism:
  
  
• The power graph indicates that he might have gotten hunting last turn, too; again, I currently don't know how this adds up with my previous data about his techs:
  
  

If Sir Yellow indeed has hunting (and mysticism) already, I probably won't be the founder of FoL; anyway, I won't hurry yet; I value some more expansion power more currently than the shrine income and a second nature mana.

[Nyktorion]

Turn 43

The road NW of Hyll is finished, and one worker is starting on a cottage now. Until animal husbandry comes in, I will finish two cottages, then I'll get the pastures for the cows and sheep.



Foreign news:

• As can be seen in the above picture, last turn's great prophet was obviously Sciz's, and he used it to bulb Way of the Earthmother; this also fully explains his point increase for this turn
  
• By elimination, it is now also clear to me that the Tephus' nationality is Sheaim
  
• Update of Sciz's techs: we know from his point increases that he has a total of 6 techs now. 5 of those are certainly those leading to RoK, and my guess for the fifth one would be agriculture (due to taking only from round 14 to 18 to be researched)
  
• I have found out the reason for Sir Yellow's 18 point increase last turn: that must be due to his third capital ring 20 turns ago
  
• Update of Sir Yellow's techs: point increases say that he must have 5 techs right now; civics and civilopedia say that these techs must be exploration, agriculture, calendar, ancient chants, and mysticism; so with all those theories about him having fishing and/or hunting, I must have interpreted his not-quite-normal research durations wrongly. The 2k soldier point increase last turn must have been just a (free?) scout then
  
• Mardoc got another tech this turn
  
• I noticed that the 7k soldier count increase must have been 2 warriors (one of those by WarriorKnight) and Sciz's pop increase
  
• Global soldier count rose by 15k this turn! 6k of that was Sciz's free Thane of Kilmorph (who is probably rival best with 20k now), so there were 3 warriors built on top of that. Rival worst grew to 14k.
  
• Total rival land area grew by 5k, which must be Sciz's second city (quick cultural expansion due to creative trait and likely holy city status). In total, it has 8k land in its first ring (i.e. one water tile), and only 5 land tiles in the second ring!
  

[Nyktorion]

Turn 44

Worker Management:

• Worker #1 continued the cottage
  
• Worker #2 used the new road to help with the cottage, as well; so a total of 3 (out of 6 needed) worker turns are in that cottage already; with the help of worker #3, it will be finished next turn
  
• Worker #3 already puts one turn of work into another cottage; he can join the other two workers next turn
  

Evermore is pumping out another settler now (needs 8 turns). My plan is to put two turns of work into it right now, then switch to the warrior waiting in the queue for a turn (this will just avoid hammer decay), and then finish the other 6 turns of the settler. However, in case Orthus spawns near me, I'll immediately finish that additional warrior before the settler; that way, I'll have three warriors defending against him on a hill in Hyll, two of them fully fortified, and one of those with Guerilla I on top of that.

The current situation:



Foreign news:

• Graphs revealed that the three warriors of last turn went to WarriorKnight, Sir Yellow, and the rival worst
  
• Mardoc's point increase should be just the delayed points for his third capital ring
  
• Sir Yellow founded Vallus, his second city. According to land area stats, it is landlocked
  
• WarriorKnight switched to Agrarianism this turn
  
• There's another global 6k soldier point increase this turn, i.e. two more warriors in the world
  

[Nyktorion]

Turn 45

Thanks to the help of all our workers, our first cottage is up and running! Growth time to hamlet is 6 turns on quick speed.



Foreign news:

• Irgy got 33 points; my guess is 22 points from his third capital ring, and 11 points from a tech. The tech took him only 4 turns, so it's probably some backfiller.
  
• Glens of Killybegs grew to size 2
  
• Somebody else has taken the #1 spot at crop yield, and I now know who it is:
  
  
• Another 7k soldier count increase this turn (1k from Killybegs, 6k from two warriors I think); rival best is now clearly WarriorKnight with 21k soldiers. He should have 5 warriors and a scout now.
  

[Nyktorion]

Turn 46

All workers are preparing the next cottage, which has 4/6 worker turns into it now. Evermore switched production to a warrior for a turn to avoid hammer decay (and we need more warriors soon anyway, we don't want to fall back in military too far, or we'll be an inviting target).



WarriorKnight got 27 points this turn, but that must have been just his (landlocked) third capital ring.

[Nyktorion]

Turn 47

Next cottage is finished; Evermore is working on its settler again.

Sciz's capital grew to size 6 this turn.

Someone (WK?) built a warrior, and someone lost a scout.

WarriorKnight is starting to look quite well: 6 warriors, and he's running away in crop yield:

[Nyktorion]

Turn 48

Workers continue on cottage #3.

Sciz's second city and Vallus both grew this turn.

We fell back to #3 in crop yield.

[Nyktorion]

Diplo update: I was having a chat with WarriorKnigh throughout the whole blitz session. The discussions re still ongoing, but one point is that we extended our NAP until T100.