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

[Nyktorion]

Turn 84

Before opening this turn, I read this message by WarriorKnight.

Nyktorion,

Thanks for the compliment. IMO having a strong economy isn't nearly as fun as running around with a hero or a religion, but maybe that's just because they're features of FFH over base civ.

We have heard rumors about some border tensions in the NW, although given that we still lack contact with the Malakim and our distance from the action that's all that we really know right now. Do you have any information about what's happening over there?

All the best,
WarriorKnight

Hmmkay. Nothing too noteworthy here. There was also something by Mr. Yellow in the mailbox:

I thus accept the following proposals:

NAP to turn 105
Open borders with permission
Culture output of Vallus and Yonna must not exceed 5

However i would like to already extend the NAP to turn 120.

Anyway, Thoth just revolted to Conquest. It's clear he got murder in his eyes and his power is spiking hard (Clear leader of the demographics).
For that i will grant permission not to just a few hawks, but also to additional military units for defence if possible. I've seen no move from him yet, but his production is the highest by far and fully focused on military.

Also for trade i got Cotton up (as you've probably seen), in addition to Sheep and Corn later as well.

- Sir Yellow

He accepted the deal, and also offered open borders ingame, so I get a look at the west now. I am obviously not interested in an NAP extension, but I'll offer him a cotton-silk trade for whenever we get our trade connection.

Now, let's start with the small stuff from our own land: Evermore is now size 9 and building a temple of leaves, so I can spread my religion around with disciples. I also used the free disciple in Evermore this turn.

Kabhalg got a fourth barb warrior, so a raiding party should start soon. I'm sending Gilden further south, he alsready has an escort of two warriors, and I sent my worker escort from Yonna over there, too. That should make a good guard for Gilden against raiding party attacks, and it is even enough meat to block all free tiles around the broken sepulcher when I want to open it in relative safety.

Oh, and WarriorKnight has a scout north of the broken sepulcher.



So, what about the hawks? I sent one into Trinity, scouting 3W1S from there. This revealed Torrolerial, from where I made another 3W1S scouting flight. The results:







So, Vallus is a really aggressive city, 10E from Torrolerial! Mr. Yellow has gems, two mana nodes, two sources of horses within reach, and marble. A worker is building a pasture, so I know another one of his techs is Animal Husbandry (last turn's tech?).

I got contact with the Malakim, they are running God King/Religion/Apprenticeship/Conquest (again someone running apprenticeship without nationhood?)



The new graphs confirm Mr. Yellow's words about a buildup.

GNP:



Hammers:



Food:



Power:



Culture:



Foreign news:

City Growths: Inishbofin (6), Mardoc's first three cities (8, 7, and 6)

Techs: Irgy (classical), Mardoc (classical)

Soldier count: rose by another 35k, 16k of that went to Thoth. 3k went to Mr. Yellow, who has an 8th warrior now. Tentatio-onis and Astrum look pretty screwed if Thoth decides to attack soon.

[Nyktorion]

Diplomacy

First, my confirmation of the treaty with Mr. Yellow, coupled with my first (weak) hawk report:

Dear Mr. Yellow,

> I thus accept the following proposals:
>
> NAP to turn 105
> Open borders with permission
> Culture output of Vallus and Yonna must not exceed 5

I thus accept, too.

> However i would like to already extend the NAP to turn 120.

Sorry, but I don't want to extend our NAP to such a length at this time. In the current state of the game, where the pace is really picking up, almost 40 turns is just a huge time, particularly at quick speed.

> Anyway, Thoth just revolted to Conquest. It's clear he got murder in his > eyes and his power is spiking hard (Clear leader of the demographics).
> For that i will grant permission not to just a few hawks, but also to
> additional military units for defence if possible. I've seen no move from
> him yet, but his production is the highest by far and fully focused on
> military.

The buildup of the Malakim is indeed frightening, I just saw their graphs myself.

As announced, I flew one hawk into Trinity, and it revealed Torrolerial from there. Thus, my second hawk used Torrolerial for its scouting flight, which gave me visibility of the first Malakim city, Golden Shack. Please find a picture of the second hawk's scouting run attached. While this will probably not help too much yet, the base for next turn's scouting run will be Tentatio-onis (rather than Torrolerial), which should reveal more of the Malakim territory.


> Also for trade i got Cotton up (as you've probably seen), in addition to
> Sheep and Corn later as well.

While I do not really have need of sheep or corn, I would be quite interested in your cotton. In return, I could offer you my silk. (My other surplus resource would just be sheep.)

best regards,
Nyktorion

Attached picture:

Next, my response to WarriorKnight. I tell him a little bit about the brewing Bannor-Malakim conflict:

Dear WarriorKnight,

according to our agreement, I hereby inform you that I have made contact (by hawk) with the Malakim this turn. They share a border with Mr. Yellow, specifically the south corner of his far western border.

I do not have much information about much actually happening. However, I have heard about these tensions, as well, and the reason for these tensions seems to be a massive military buildup by Thoth. He has at least one warrior with bronze weapons, is running apprenticeship and conquest, and according to graphs, he had a soldier count of 81k last turn, which was labelled "rival best" by last turn's demographics (note: this turn, the rival best soldier count was already 97k).

best regards,
Nyktorion

Last, I wanted to draft up some greeting message to Thoth which also tries to prompt him about his military. However, he interrupted me with a greeting message of his own:

Hi Nyktorion,

Thoth from RB here,

Just a quick note to say "hi" now that we've met in game.

Congratulations on getting your religion and hero into play so early.

Given the distance between our lands I don't think we'll have much to trade with each other in the early game, but I would be willing to trade goods/mana/trade routes once any impediments to our mutual trade have been eliminated.

As a sign of good faith, the Malakim are willing to enter into negotiations for a Non Aggression Pact with the Ljosofar.

Thoth (acting foreign Minister to the Malakim)

So I rephrased my message. I now have two items that might make him drop something about the brewing conflict (mentioning of the Bannor between us, and asking about his large military). I stay noncommittal on the NAP offer: I'd like some more information on that very conflict (or even non-conflict?) before officially taking away my last "out" to aiding the Bannor militarily (even if, at the moment, it does not look like I want to send them military help, anyway).

Dear Thoth,

hello to you, as well. My hawk has reached your border this turn, revealing Golden Shack and thus indeed establishing contact between us. My congratulations on your own, even earlier religion!

Indeed, we are far away from each other, we are sharing border with the Bannor at the far east. As we both share a border with the Bannor, who already have Cartography, trade options might even, at least theoretically, not be too far away.

I appreciate your sign of good faith; while such an agreement does not seem strictly necessary due to our distance, it does not seem to be harmful per se, either. I do have to say that I am a bit surprised to be immediately approached with a NAP offer by somebody whose military might is currently so tremendous; I wonder what terms you are having in mind?

best regards,
Nyktorion of the Ljosalfar

[Nyktorion]

Turn 85

Workers around Yonna are getting things done: I now have Earth Mana (Standing Stones) connected, and the second flood plain is farmed. I continue to collect my forces around Gilden, marching towards Kabhalg and the Broken Sepulcher.



Hawk picture of the Elohim lands. This shows that I probably won't havespace for another city south of Kabhalg, thus answering a message by WarriorKnight to me (see below). The only open question seems to be the land to the south east, including the Dragon Bones, but I think WarriorKnight will get those anyway. Also note that the 4 Combat I orc warriors have moved 1W of Kabhalg.



Concerning the Bannor: Mr. Yellow had deserted Vallus last turn, and is moving his warriors from there westwards. Vallus got a new warrior this turn, though. Here's what my official spying hawk saw of the Bannor lands this turn. At Mr. Yellow's request, he used Astrum (rather than Tentatio-onis) as a base this turn.



And here's what it saw of the Malakim (this is also the picture I sent to Mr. Yellow). In particular, note the main force, led by the swordsman who has slain Orthus when he was still a warrior.



Oh, and Thoth founded a new city:



C&D news:

City growths: Golden Tipi (1, newly founded), Slane (4), Vallus (6), Trinity (4)

Soldier count: Thoth has 103k now. Also, WarriorKnight had a spike of +9k or so last turn.

Diplo:

I got this from Mr. Yellow:

Nyktorion

Thanks for the directions to the Malakim. I'll see if I can contact them at some point in the future.

If Thoth is having a massive military buildup then I doubt the Bannor will be able to hold them off for long. I can't say that I have a good feeling about the score leader getting more land but there's nothing I can do about it since I'm so far away.

Anyway I wanted to ask you this, do you want to sort out a border agreement? I think we know enough about the surrounding terrain to be able to sort one out and the last thing we want is border tensions between us. There's not a lot of land to divide (most of which is taken by the barb city of Kabhalg anyway) so it shouldn't be too difficult to come to an agreement.

All the best,
WarriorKnight

Hmm... I want to take Kabhalg anyway, and as he said, there's not enough for another city after that, anyway. So I responded:

Dear WarriorKnight,

I wouldn't have thought about the need for a border agreement at this moment. However, since you are asking: is there any specific item that you would like to have regulated?

best regards,
Nyktorion

Message from Mr. Yellow:

Actually i rather you did it from Astrum instead of Tentatio-onis, since i'm pretty sure Thoth knows i don't have Hunting yet and that he won't expect hawks to scout out his positions. He has visibility over Tentatio-onis and would see the hawk parked there. Besides Astrum is close enough to provide good grounds for scouting.

Also, been talking with Mardoc (who borders Thoth from the south) a lot and he's gearing up his defences too. He clearly opposes Thoth as well, so the nomads are pretty isolated from the rest of the world.

Hmm, I thought Thoth can't see into Tentatio-onis? Anyway, I heeded his request. Also, I think Mardoc disliking Thoth is nice news. Two FIN civs fighting each other that early is a very good scenario in principle. My response, with the picture from further above attached:

I'm surprised by your sorrow about Thoth's vision into Tentatio-onis; I wouldn't have thought that he had have visibility into it in the current border constellation. Anyway, to be safe, I still rather did my scouting flight from Astrum this turn, I attached the resulting picture again. Since I have spotted units on several tiles, I copied the stack information together into one picture, and linked the pieces of stack information with the respective tiles by color-coding them. The red stack south east from Golden Shack is looking like Thoth's main stack to me.

Congratulations on getting all diplomatic contacts, by the way! I wonder whether the unit name "General Martok" is a reference to Mardoc...

best regards,
Nyktorion

Finally, this morning, I got something from Thoth:

Trade options may be closer than you think. Borders can change swiftly once Heroes and World Spells are in play.

In regards to the NAP offer,

The Malakim people prefer to establish peaceful relations with their neighbours. We regard NAPs as a sign of good intentions and a cornerstone of building a mutually profitable relationship between civs.

Our current military may seem a bit on the large size, but the Malakim people have had to deal with multiple incursions from Barbaric tribes and our Eastern borders are being crowded by Bannor culture. As a result of the current geopolitical situation, the funding of additional military forces seemed prudent to the current Malakim administration.

As to terms for a NAP, the Malakim people would like a commitment until t120 from both sides.

Thoth

That says "I want to kill Mr. Yellow" pretty clearly, I think. I am currently considering what to respond. I'm tempted to finally get into the open with my plans to hit Mr. Yellow by T105. Maybe I can cut a deal with Thoth here? The "cultural hole" between Torrolerial intuitively seems like a logical dividing line, with everything west of that going to Thoth, and everything in the east going to me...

[Nyktorion]

Turn 86

First, I had a little chat with WarriorKnight. The main result was that he acknowledges Kabhalg as mine, but I won't be settling further south than that. His culture will be taking the mana SW of Yonna in the further future, and I won't contest that.

I also learned that Irgy has adopted Slavery, and is running Aristocracy/Religion/Slavery now. He seems to be going for Ashen Veil very soon.

(Note: doesn's that hilly area SW of Yonna with the mana node look like a typical spawning place for Hyborem?)

On to my own turn: the Broken Sepulcher was surrounded by units, I opened it with a warrior. The result:



The Timor Mask is this item:



I also attacked one of the archers in Kabhalg with Gilden, at 88% shown odds. Gilden won:



I also let my two hawks fly again. Here is the result of a flight 3S1W from Yonna:



And the flight for Mr. Yellow from Astrum:



Note the 1f5h tile yield of the mine 1S of Astrum, so this seems to be the location of Mr. Yellow's copper.

Yonna is now at size 3.

After hitting EOT, there was another nice surprise waiting for me:



One less disciple to build!

Foreign news:

City growths: Torrolerial (8), Irgy's second or third city (slaved down to 4)

WarriorKnight got a classical tech, and Thoth an ancient one.

Soldier count wise, Mr. Yellow indeed seems to be building a significant number of warriors now. Very good, make the battle for Torrolerial a bloody one (but don't defend Vallus and Trinity too hard, please)!

This turn, I'm generally not sure about Irgy and Thoth, since the scores are off by 1-4 points from what I expected.

[Nyktorion]

Diplo Update:

the usual messages with Mr. Yellow about his imminent war against Thoth:

Yupp, this is great info.

Anyway, Thoth just moved his main stack right next to my borders, in range to take the city the next turn. 6 swordsmen, some warriors and a few thanes. 1 of them have the axe and are at str. 6 with 5 combat promotions. He is going for the kill.

I'm abonding both Tentano-onis and Astrum. I have a much better chance to defend myself in the capital. Also i got Open borders with Mardoc this turn and are able to get copper from him should it be needed. My copper seems to be lost though, too close to Thoth.

I'm thinking of going Construction now to get catapults. Gonna need more than warriors for defence.

- Sir Yellow

Response by me:

I'm sad to hear about the fall of Tentatio-onis, but I hope you can get enough defenders into Torrolerial to stop the result.

Anyway, I again attached the results of my hawk flight this turn. Since the big stack is now within your visibility range, I did not highlight it here. At least, from what I see, Thoth does not seem to have even more forces coming after you.

best regards,
Nyktorion

Attached picture:

I also finally decided on how to proceed towards Thoth. As a result, I essentially sold Mr. Yellow to him in exchange for Vallus and Trinity.

Dear Thoth,

from what you are saying, it seems quite apparent that what I thought is true: you are planning to attack the Bannor with the forces you are accumulating.

So, before we are really talking about a NAP, we should clarify what my own standing would be with such a war. I have to openly admit that in principle, I understand that I should rather be on Mr. Yellow's side in this war, for global balance of power reasons. I also understand that with the help of my archers and my hero, Mr. Yellow's chances of survival would be drastically better than without that. I even believe that my hero is currently the only player-owned unit that the victor over Orthus couldn't attack with positive odds. Of course, a NAP between us would exclude me from any such interference.

However, I do have a certain interest of my own to see the Bannor fall. Mr. Yellow has been settling quite aggressively towards me; his second city (Vallus) is 10 tiles away from his capital, into my direction. As a result, the Bannor lands can be quite clearly divided into West-Bannorland (consisting of Torrolerial, Tentatio-onis, and Astrum) and East-Bannorland (consisting of Vallus and Trinity). The cultural borders of West and East Bannorland are only barely touching each other. As a further result, my settling space is getting tight, so I have plans annex to annex East Bannorland.

I am currently preparing my strike force and am still playing nice with Mr. Yellow. For those reasons, we are having a NAP until T105; I plan my strike when this NAP runs out. Therefore, I propose the following to you:

- I leave West Bannorland to you, and you leave East Bannorland to me
- We sign a NAP that gives both of us enough time to easily annex our respective part of the Bannor lands, I suggest it to run until T130 (i.e. even 10 turns longer than you proposed)

What do you think of this?
In any case, please treat the information I gave you in this proposal as confidential.

best regards,
Nyktorion

His sweet response, which is what I wanted

OH MY.

Great minds are thinking alike indeed. Once my C&D people caught on to the fact that Mr. Yellow had settled a great Artist in Trinity I began to suspect he might be a bit of a thorn in your side.

I accept both your proposed NAP until turn 130 and your division of soon to be former Bannor lands into East and West Bannor.

I will be taking possession of Tentatio-onis this turn (86). I do not expect to be able to take his capital at this time but I intend to choke him until I can. In the unlikely event that I can take all of his cities at this time I agree that I will gift the cities of Vallus and Trinity to you if I capture them from the Bannor before you do.

It is unfortunate that your hands are currently tied by a NAP. A two front assault would quickly end the Bannor dreams of conquest. However, as I regard such agreements as binding I will not ask you to attack before t105.

If my C&D people are correct, Vallus has multiple cotton resources. I would like the right of first refusal on one of these resources. I am willing to pay a resource in exchange but I would like access to another happy resource.

Thoth (looking forward to a mutually profitable relationship)

PS: The odds-makers in Golden Lean To are currently giving the battle hardened General Martok odds against Gilden Silveric. Still, it is better for us to meet on the battlefield to toast our mutual victory with some Bloodwine than to fight over trifles.

Onwards to VICTORY!

And this small addition:

I will of course treat your correspondence as confidential and ask that you do the same with mine.

(posting in spoiler threads for the amusement of the lurkers excepted )

Of course, you lurkers deserve to be omniscient
I don't really have a problem with accepting him getting first dibs on the second cotton of Vallus.

[Nyktorion]

Turn 87

We have Philosophy!
I took Kabhalg this turn. FIrst, I sent two sacrifial warriors into the last orc archer, then I mopped up his remains with Gilden. The result:



Kabhalg now has the wounded Gilden (who should still be able to fend off one barb warrior) and two full health warriors inside, one of them Shock I. Also, there are three orc warriors beside Kabhalg; they have probably eaten WarriorKnight's scout last turn.



My hawk used Kabhalg to peek south a bit further:



Note the 1/5/1 tile yield of the tile 1S of Glens of Killybegs, that must be WarriorKnight's copper. I also took a peek into Glens of Killybegs, and found an elder council, a market, a library (so WK has Writing!) and the Deruptus Brewing House (so I guessed correctly recently when the score increases were very unclear to me).

Malakim Hawk:



New tech is now Way of the Wicked. With the gold pillaged from Kabhalg, I can research it at full speed. Kabhalg is getting an edler council when out of riot, and Yonna, having finished its council, is working on an archery range. With all those flood plains, it will make for a great whipping city.



C&D:

I wrote down Thoth's points incorrectly last turn. He got a classical tech rather than an ancient one. According to a message by Mr. Yellow, and the new mobility promotions on some Malakim units, that tech is Horseback Riding. Tentatio-onis went from Mr. Yellow to Thoth. Irgy whipped the same town as last turn again, bringing it down to 2 pop now.

[Nyktorion]

Diplo update:

I confirm the pact with Thoth:

Dear Thoth,

hearby I sign the following:

- we have a NAP until T130
- I acknowledge that Torrolerial, Tentatio-onis, and Astrum belong to you
- you acknowledge that Vallus and Trinity belog to me
- when I get Vallus, which indeed has 2 cotton resources; I must offer one of them to you for another happy resource I don't have yet

Congratulations on your taking of Tentatio-onis/Golden Yurt this turn!

best regards,
Nyktorion

P.S: the odds-makers in Evermore were already giving Gilden the odds against an attack by General Martok. However, they were assuming Gilden to be defending a hill city, such as Torrolerial; however, as our current pact is excluding the possibility of this scenario happening, that is now a moot point

P.P.S: Of course, the confidentiality is only related to leaders of other nations in the actual world of Erebus. Those beings called "lurkers" living on the other side of the great glass barrier are always assumed to be omniscient, anyway

Mr. Yellow is asking again for some actual units.

Thoth might think he doesn't need more units to take me down.
That could be true, as he aquirred Horseback Riding and have promoted many of his units with mobility I. It has allowed him to get some units in range of the capital in just 2 turns.
I lost all my units that were retreating. Gotta love all the sand and gold Thoth's been using, he lost one swordsman though.

Mardoc just sent me copper last turn and expect to have bronze weapons pretty soon. So i should be able to hold the capital for now. What worries me though is that Thoth easily has bigger production capabilities and will eventually win the attrition war. I really need military support from here on if i'm gonna survive this.

Anyway, i've pretty much full focus on just opposing Thoth now. Nothing else to do than to try and grab back what's lost.

This has more or less become a 3 on 1 conflict and more could possibly join if WK wants to interfere.

- Sir Yellow

I stall. I don't want to intervene, and even if I wanted, I couldn't anymore. So I stall some, and give him the usual picture:

First, my condolences on the loss of Tentatio-onis.

As every turn, my hawk has done its scouting run from Astrum. Since maybe not everything around Tentatio-onis/Golden Yurt is in your vision anymore, you might be interested in the way Thoth's army is split now. The picture is color coded the same way as the picture I sent you 2 turns ago.

I am currently starting to produce a bit of military, but it will take me some time to amass enough force to make a noticable strike in this war. I will be finishing my first archery range soon.

best regards,
Nyktorion

Attached picture:

I'm not even strictly lying here. I am indeed getting started on some units, and I indeed want to intervene decisively when I have amassed some. Of course, I didn't specify on which side I'll intervene...

[Nyktorion]

Turn 88

Hyll finished a hunter, and is getting another one. This guy will, with some help of a hawk, help me explore the south, and maybe meet Irgy.

The warrior in Vallus now has bronze weapons, so I suppose Mardoc traded his copper to Mr. Yellow this turn.

One of the three orc warriors attacked Kabhalg. The result is not very surprising:





My hawk that is not tied down in Mr. Yellow's service used the turn to scout east of Evermore. Looks like I still have some unoccupied space on this peninsula/island thing



Bruti grew to size 8. With some turns of filling the food storage, I can then afford quite a number of turns of working a sage specialist.



Foreign news:

City growths: Slane (6->7), Golden Shanty (3->4), Golden Tipi (1->2)

Mr. Yellow got another ancient tech, probably Masonry, as he announced he was going for catapults. If I tracked everything correctly, he should have every ancient tech except Hunting now.

After a long time, here's a demo screen again. We're actually looking quite good again:

[Nyktorion]

Diplo update:

Got this from Thoth:

Hi Nyktorion

I'm glad we could come to such a mutually beneficial agreement so easily.


The very presence of General Martok was enough to scare the defenders out of the city. Mobile units hunted down the former garrison in the plains outside Golden Yurt.

So far the war goes well but I expect a stalemate for the next 8-10 turns while I pillage him and pick off soft targets.

best regards,
Thoth

Mr. Yellow tells me I can put a little less effort into showing the main army of Thoth:

By the way, there's no need to continue scouting the army between the border city and the capital, just focus on what's happening behind it.

So I'm doing exactly that:

Okay, now you're certainly seeing all of that army anyway.

I attached the picture of what is happening behind the lines. Units behind the lines are color-coded as usual. The main thing I can see here is this:

- Golden Shack and Golden Yurt are currently empty
- There are currently only 2 single warriors in the visible area behind the front lines

best regards,
Nyktorion

Attached picture:

From the picture, it seems that Thoth is already marching towards Torrolerial. At least, even if he manages to take it quickly (which neither Thoth nor Mr. Yellow believe according to their messages), Thoth thankfully already gave Vallus and Trinity to me. Maybe, if I'm very lucky, he'd even do my work of conquering those cities for me? Let's see...

[Nyktorion]

Turn 89

A nice event greeted me at the beginning of the turn:



That was enough to finish Way of the Wicked right away.
Next, the event log shows that the second of the three orc warriors attacked Kabhalg this turn, and he was repelled; only one orc left to go. As you can also see, somebody (specifically, Thoth) has finished the Form of the Titan:



The hawks did some more scouting. The western hawk showed me that Thoth is really marching towards Torrolerial now, but he has also sent a small division to Astrum. The defence in Astrum looks to me like it can resist the attackers there - I have no idea about Torrolerial, though.



The eastern hawk scouted some more of the Elohim lands. It uncovered Cahir Abbey:



With Way of the Wicked researched, and my big cities hitting their happy caps again, I revolted into Religion and Slavery:



Domestically, Evermore finished its temple of leaves, and is now training a disciple for Kabhalg. Bruti now has its archery range, and is getting the first archer now. Generally, I can be pretty satisfied: quite a few ancient forests have already grown, and I'm getting to work more and more cottages.