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

[Nyktorion]

Turn 8

Our northern scout needs 3 more turns to heal, an spotted another goblin! Since he is wounded (and therefore will probably take one less hit to die), his chance to win should be lower than in the first fight, despite his combat I promotion. I will probably choose to run next turn.



The southern scout continues his explorations uninterrupted.



WK received another tech, which should be something self-researched costing between 70 and 80 beakers, i.e. agriculture or exploration, probably agriculture. Here is the demo for this turn:



The total rival soldier count increased by 1k. Since both Sciz and Mardoc are scheduled to complete a warrior this turn, I assume they did so, and the warrior of Sciz or Mardoc, as well as somebody's scout, got eaten. Another possibility would be that Sciz had a turn of anarchy into nationalism (he starts with religion), and only a scout got devoured.

[Nyktorion]

Turn 9

The poison goblin indeed moved up towards the wounded scout, so I retreated him towards the desert/plains area.



The southern scout continued his exploration normally.



On to the foreign matters. Mr. Yellow got a tech this turn. I don't immediately understand which one, though. If he indeed had 12 GNP all the time, then he has accumulated 100 beakers; too much for agriculture and ancient chants, too much for everything else. Hence, I think I mixed up him and Irgy in my previous speculations. So, what could he have researched in 10 turns with 13 beakers per turn? Only crafting comes to mind here. And how did he get 15 GNP without the 20% prereq. bonus? All of this does not really add up.
Or did he just get a free tech from a hut? That's also possible...

Next, we know whose scout got devoured last turn:



Finally, here is the demo:



Sciz's capital grew to size 3, and is working another flood plains tile.

[Nyktorion]

Turn 10

Both of our scouts are now in the desert/plains area, and the northern one takes 2 more turns to heal up.



Contact with the Bannor! This means I'll write some more diplo messages later today. I expect to do the greeting message in a similar style as I did with the Elohim. Since I'll be telling WK about Mr. Yellow anyway, I could as well tell Yellow about WK, too. Also, I hope that going south will occupy Yellow enough to not find the broken sepulcher immediately. I guess I should explore it soon with my southern scout, before someone else does.

In other foreign news, Irgy's capital grew to size 3 on schedule this turn. Mardoc's capital did not grow yet, so he was not working two 3f tiles throughout the last 5 turns.

Here is the demo for this turn:



Rival best Food/Prod/GNP changed from 12/2/29 to 9/4/28 (does that mean Sciz is rushing to get another warrior out by changing from a flood plains to a 0/2/1 tile? Why this panic?). Also, the global soldier count decreased by 3k, with rival worst being at 0 now! Next turn we will see whether this was WK's final warrior.

The initial worker of both WK and Mr. Yellow must be finished by now (Yellow should have been finished last turn already).

Now what do the graphs say about Mr. Yellow? He was indeed at a constant 12 GNP for the last 10 turns. Since there is no tech costing between 90 and 100 beakers, this means he got a freebie tech (or some research help from an event). The graphs for production and food confirm the theory of him working a 3/0/0 or 3/0/1 tile up to now. Finally, the power graph tells us that none of his units have been devoured yet.

[Nyktorion]

Diplo:

Dear WarriorKnight, wise monk of the Elohim,

we have promised to inform you whenever we meet any new nations. By this promise, we would like to inform you that we have just met a Bannor scout to the north of your settlement/to the west of our settlement.

may the friendship between our two civilisation last for a long time,
Nyktorion of the Ljosalfar

and to the Bannor:

Greetings!

the age of ice has passed, and this land is coming to life again. Finally, all of us can settle down, and thus do the first step in allowing our people to thrive again. We are pleased to see other people who have survived.

We, the Ljosalfar, believe that the best way towards a blooming of the new life of both of our nations is to leave the ruthless, warlike spirit of the age of ice behind, and enter a symbiotic coexistence. There are certainly many ways for us to benefit from each other. For instance, one immediate possibility to do so would be to pass information about other civilizations we meet among each other. As a sign of our good will, we let you know that we have already met a group of monks calling themselves "Elohim", who have settled further to the south of our scouts' meeting point.

wishing you the best,
Nyktorion of the Ljosalfar

[Nyktorion]

Sir Yellow answered me this:

Greetings as well.

The shadow dictator and the bannors welcomes you these promising times with friendly hands.
To return the goodwill, we will tell you that we are located to the west of here, across a vast desert of fertility. The area around is sandy as well so I suspect that the Malakims are nearby, possibly south or southwest of here.
While knowing where the Elohim are is nice, i would like to know where the elves are located too.

Sadly we can't stay here for long, since we're currently fleeing from a griffon hot on Dirks (Scout) tail, located a bit south. I suggest you turn tail and run as well.

Sir Yellow, chief advisor of the Bannor.

If the bit about the griffon is true, our southern scout might be in extreme danger! Strangely, we have not spotted that griffon yet. If we see no griffon in the next 1-2 turns, I might ask him back about it.
About his request to know our location: might as well play nice and tell him, he'll find out in a while, anyway:

Dear Sir Yellow of the Bannor!

thanks for your information. In return, we can of course tell you that our settlement lies to the northeast of our scouts' meeting point.

best wishes,
Nyktorion of the Ljosalfar

[Nyktorion]

Turn 11

First, diplo: the Elohim acknowledged our information about the Bannor:

Nyktorion

Thank you for informing us of the Bannor. We unfortunately still have yet to meet any new civilizations.

WarriorKnight
Elder Monk of the order of the Elohim

On to our scouts:



It seems that the warnings of the Bannor were true. Even worse, there is another poison goblin to the north! So the scout runs off westwards, into the unknown...



More poison goblins! I move the northern scout back towards the griffon, such that it is the only opponent able to attack, and the other scout may get through towards the sepulcher - with so many neighbors close by, I am seriously considering opening it already, before anyone else's explorer finds it.



In hindsight, I think that this was a rather stupid move by me. The griffon will grant the northern scout rather bad odds for survival, evn though it is wounded a bit (it should get a promotion before attacking!). After spotting the second goblin unit, I should have rather moved the scout further 1W. That way, it would have gotten the river crossing bonus, and +25% for being within 2 tiles of Odio's prioson, if the goblins attack.

On to C&D: Irgy's capital grew to size 4 (how did it do that? That was really quick!), and Mardoc's capital grew to size 3. The demo for this turn:



Only rival crop yield increased with the city growths, so maybe Irgy and Mardoc are running out of good tiles to work? Rival best soldier count increased by 1k (Irgy's fourth citizen), but the total decreased by 1k (-2k for Yellow's griffoned scout). Oh, and somebody's life expectancy shrank to 50 (maybe Irgy only has 4 health in his starting position, i.e. is light on forests?)

Another thing I noticed from the graphs of yesterday: after WK got his first 80-cost tech, he switched to something with a prerequisite (GNP rose by 2). And one further thing from today's graphs: WK is indeed the one with 0 soldier count right now.

[Nyktorion]

Turn 12

As I feared last turn, the griffon indeed ate one of my scouts for lunch. However, other than expected, it was the southern one. That still leaves the northern scout threatened by the goblins.



The scout takes the only path out...



We're surrounded, and there's even a second griffon around! Bye bye, scout

On to the demo:



Mardoc got 22 points! So, he probably finished researching fishing, and found something else in a hut on the same turn. I can't really figure out what to read from the changes in GNP, Prod and Food at thiss point. Both rival best and rival total soldier count increased by 3k. (2k pop + 9k warriors + 2k scout = 13k, so that must be Irgy because of the 2k pop). Also, creative Sciz got his third capital ring, which consists purely of land tiles. Finally, somebody reached his happy cap (and nobody has 5 pop yet), so there must have been a temporary happyness penalty event for someone.

[Nyktorion]

Turn 13



Our scout survived! Both the griffon and the goblin remained in their places this turn!
No matter where the scout goes, it can be attacked by the griffon (or the other griffon and two goblins in the fog to the west). Hence, we might as well maximise our defensize chances by walking onto a forested hill.



Next up, diplo:

Dear Nyktorion

We have encountered a Sheaim scout near our lands. We tried to spread our message of peace but it kept predicting the end of the world.

They appeared from our south, so they are likely to be around that way somewhere.

Until we meet again,

WarriorKnight
Elder Monk of the order of the Elohim

So the Sheaim are to the south of the Elohim. That's good news: their pyre zombies could either force WK to use his Sanctuary (shielding me from them at the same time) without us bearing the guilt for it, or hopefully cripple Mardoc's financial Lanun or Sciz's many-flood-plains-free-great-merchant start. Needless to say, either of these scenarios would be good for us

I sent them back a thanks, and a few bits of information to build up good relations:

Dear WarriorKnight,

thanks for telling us about the Sheaim scout!
In the meantime, we have not found any new civilizations - only a lot of goblins and griffons to the north of your settlement.

best wishes,
Nyktorion of the Ljosalfar

Finally, let's get to the C&D. Here is the demo:

• Sciz's score indicates that his capital grew to size 4, and he got a tech. Tech-cost and prereq-wise, all seems to add up very nicely with the tech being mysticism.
  
• Rival best GNP has dropped back to 26, rival best food increased to 13. So I guess that Sciz is working 3 flood plains and a 1/3/0 tile now.
  
• Total soldier count increased by 4k. Somebody (not Irgy with his probably 13k soldier count) got a warrior, and the last 1k is Sciz's 4th pop point
  

Time for a lurker quiz:what will happen to the Ljosalfar scout and the griffon next to it?
A) In a glorious battle, our fighters can keep the vile beast out of our sacred forests
B) Despite thir valiant efforts, the scouts will be killed by this intruding terror of the skies
C) Too afraid to attack, the monster will keep a safe distance from our scouts
The prize for those who can guess the correct answer will be - cookies!

[Maksim]

Being gloomy and pessimistic, I will go with option B.

[Nyktorion]

Turn 14

First, sorry for not updating for the last two days. I had two long days at work, so I barely brought up the energy to play the two turns of these days, but writing turn reports would have been too much for me. So, I will give all the reports for turns 14-16 right now.

About the fate of our scout: the correct answer is...



C! Sorry, Maksim, the scout still lives to see another day
I decided to just let the scout heal up for the last bit (though entering the borders of Evermore would probably be the more precise play).

Concerning C&D, I forgot to take a demo screenshot on Thursday evening. Still, there are score increases for WK and Sir Yellow, indicating that they are both behaving as expected (10 turns for a worker, then 5 turns for growing to size 2).

Diplo: Sir Yellow sent two messages

Hello Nyktorion

Hope the griffin haven't caused you much trouble.
Anyway, i came here regarding the Elohim. I've been looking at the demographics and curiously, one player has no power to speak of.
Pretty sure that player is WarriorKnight, since he started off with worker first. So i wondered if you know anything of what happened down south that got him into that situation?
Having no military to speak of is quite a gamble, though i know he's pretty safe thanks to Sanctuary. Still loosing this "extra life" would make him a more vulnerable target later on.

Sir Yellow

Another thing i wanted to talk about are expansions. I dunno how your lands looks like, but i haven't had much luck in my explorations except for a few great locations.
So regarding the desert we met on, unless there are any objections i would like to border that area between us for now.

By the way, when i said vulnerable target i meant it in the general term. Not that i've already decided on who to oppose already.
If there were any thoughts of that. :P

I scrambled up the following response. My immediate impression that went into it were:

• He seems to have an idea about the truth of WK's military, so I'll confirm his info. I don't think it'll come back to hurt us.
  
• I won't agree to make the desert our border, that won't leave us with enough space for more than about 5 sensible cities. Still, maybe everyone's space is similarly scarce, so let's just stall with informal blahblah (I hope I didn't make it too "blahblah" in my tired state back then).
  

Dear Sir Yellow,

sadly, the griffons seem to really trouble this desert. We saw your scout get devoured by one of the beasts, and give our condolences about that; also, one of our own scouts met the same fate.

Our scouts can confirm your your observations abut the Elohim. According to the reports we received, indeed all of their soldiers have perished by now, and their settlement is training their citizens in civilian rather than military matters. Since we were the first civilization they encountered, and they did not send any calls for help, we can only assume that wild animals or goblins are responsible for killing the Elohim military.

We have received your suggestion about making the desert we met in the border between our rising nations. While we appreciate the approach of pre-planning the division of land rather than racing for settling land, I am afraid that we can not make any formal agreements concerning this issue. We should make a decision where both of us are well-informed about the shape of our land, and I am afraid that we are not quite well-informed enough about the land between our nations yet.
Therefore, at this point I can only tell you that we plan not make our first settling moves aggressively against you, and we would of course be happy to know that you do not have such plans, either.

wishing the best to you and the Bannor people,
Nyktorion of the Ljosalfar