[SPOILERS]Ill Met by Moonlight-The Unseelie Court of the Svartalfar

[Selrahc]

The slow whittling down of the barbs should work well. One goblin down, two barbs left. I think another will attack this turn.

Had a quick look at the demographics, and it was fairly painful. Somebody (Thoth) already has double my GNP, in which I am last. I'm last in production, and until the population rise at the end of turn was also last in food, although that did raise to second when the turn ended. (Muted cheers)

I followed Darrells advice and got that worker building a pig farm. Should have done that last turn.

Out of curiosity - why not Water? Just that you valued Haste and Slow more? Or do you expect the fire to burn itself out eventually? Or what?

Haste is absolutely essential. Without it, Titania would have been eaten by spiders twice now, or died wrestling a gorilla. The only way to make the early trips into the jungle safe is with haste.

Slow is much less essential, but Slow is a really really good spell, and the possibility of a late game archmage with Snowfall is also an appealing idea.

I do think that Water isn't going to be an essential ingredient of the elf game though. In my test game, fires were around well into the late game. But the damage they did to my forests was low. Most of them occurred in newly conquered border regions or out in the fog, with only a few occurring in the core. I'd rather have Ice than Water.

Also, what do you think of your foes' choices, except Bob's?

Kuro's selection is very weak. An adept out blazing trees can't be casting inspiration, or scouting the surroundings of the capital with floating eye. FIre was a particularly bad choice in those circumstances. Mind was quite a weak choice too, since the Balz get mind from their palace or from Loki. A spell like skeletons or haste would have been much more effective.

Thoth's pick of mind mana was pretty shrewd. I think I outlined why it was a good idea in my discussion of mind earlier. It paid off in some exceptional early research figures for him.

Rev.. I don't know enough. Meta is a generically good choice.

[Selrahc]

Rather than obligingly suiciding, the goblin moves to interrupt the worker. :thumbsdow

Haven't been able to get two straight turns of worker actions yet. Moved to connect the reagents, but I think the barbs will continue to interrupt.

[Selrahc]

The dance with the goblin continues. First I farm the pigs. It moves to cover me. Then I connect the reagents. It moves to cover me. I've got a feeling this could continue... Perhaps bringing the worker back to the capital would induce the goblin into suicide.

I'm also contemplating sending team Titania back on the road. I don't think they're needed for capital defence, and I'd love to get some more burning in.

[Selrahc]

21-The adept left the base, the barbs all suicided conveniently.

22-The worker finished working on the Reagent Plantation. Titania finds Dye!

23- Faerie grows to happy cap. The worker finishes the pig farm. Titania finds a dungeon, and some big grey stompy beasts, with shiny ivory tusks.

[Selrahc]

Moving to the lair reveals yet another giant spider. I pop the lair with the scout, and haste both units out of there.

The lair gets 23 gold. Eh. At least it wasn't a monster.

Silk has been found.

And ending turn pops borders, and I find my first hut. Apparently Bob has already found and explored 10.

[Selrahc]

All the way up to T30.

Big luck in exploring a dungeon, after some lacklustre results(spirit guide, disease, 23 gold). I got the Lizard vs. Dwarf war.

Of course as a civ who is sinister, I picked the lizards. Going to be some fun turns ahead. Better get animal husbandry ASAP.

[NobleHelium]

Niiice. Strength 5 lizards? Spirit guide is pretty good in this game unless it's on the adept.

[darrelljs]

That is a strong of luck!

Darrell

[Selrahc]

Meet Saurus and Sakkra, the lizard twins.



They're currently both on C1, and I'll be exploring the jungles for further animals to mug to get them up to 5xp, ready for animal capturing duties. Predictably enough, S5 with a 50% bonus against animals gets 99% odds at victory even without promotions.

Titania is feeling slightly overshadowed, but she continues to provide fire every turn. Nearing her next level up too...

You can also see a nice chunk of my southern exploration at the same time. Unlike the north, there are a lot of commerce resources around here.



Up in the north, fairy Thistle is resting after some tussles with animals. She will try her luck at sweeping the northern jungles for animals to capture, in the same way the lizards will prowl the southern. Eventually I'll send hunters up to replace her.


While in the west the first fires continue to develop nicely.


Overall, I would have liked a lot more scouting at this point, but I have been making up for that in the last few turns. Still not even equalled what someone with a floating eye would see in the first three turns though.





Here is the capital, I've got two workers out and about. Ideally I'd be further developed than this, but the Goblin invasions of 22-30 were harsh on my infrastructure.

I'm not quite sure where the second city is going to go just yet. I'd love it to and scoop up the nearby source of dyes, but something tells me that region will still be aflame by the time the settler finishes.


The demographics screen. I'm not doing the best.. but I'm not doing terribly either. Keeping up in the food, which I'm happy about. And I seem to be the highest non-academy GNP, and the highest non GEng production too... as slow start elves who were harassed by goblins I'm fairly happy with the current state. Thoth's massive GNP lead is still scary though.

Speaking of which, Bob has got his first GEng up and running, and Kuro has gotten a Great Sage.

Bob is *way* in the lead at the moment. He has popped three different technologies from huts, and has his GEng helping him out. It looks like he may be already starting work on Barnaxus.. considering a comment he made about "Clearing out spiders with my new toy". If I had any idea where he was, I'd be thinking about sending some lizards towards him for harassment. But as is, I suppose I'll just have to sit worried.


Technology: I have ancient chants, education(hut tech, although one I had mostly researched), crafting, calendar, agriculture. I'm pushing for Animal Husbandry.

Way of the forests isn't quite as big a priority for me as it would be for the Ljosalfar. I don't enable a powerful defensive worldspell for researching it, and I don't think I'll have serious competition to found the religion.

Tech priorities after animal husbandry: Mysticism, Mining, Hunting, Way of the Forests.

I'm wanting to get Knowledge of the Ether sometime quite soon, in order to start building adepts for maturation. I will have hunters to build at the same time though... could slot it in before Way of the Forests if I have production to spare.

I am noting it could be possible to grab Way of the Earthmother, but I don't think I'll do that. I've got other uses for the beakers, it would be a heavy ask just for denial purposes.

Priesthood I'm calling low priority. I shouldn't need too many bloom priests, assuming my burning game plan works out at all. And priests of leaves summoning tigers might not be too useful on this map.. I've got a feeling everyone will prioritize hunters.

[Selrahc]

A notably less friendly lizard shows up in the south. It's combat 2, but I haven't lost any units to it... Somebody has been in my woods, riling up my lizards.

Some more warriors are called up to serve in Faerie, in case this Lizard hasn't got the memo about the great Lizard-Fairy peace treaty of T30 that heralded the end of the Goblin Wars.


Sidenote:
The method I've been using to open lairs, relatively risk free.
Move adept and scout into lair.
Explore lair with scout.
If something bad is disturbed, cast haste with adept and walk away.
When the bad thing follows, cast slow on it. That should leave it stranded in the woods and you can get some distance built up. That is what happened to the dwarves that tried to kill my Lizard twins.