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

[Darkmantle]

Thanks for keeping us updated Nyktorion! The lurkers are keeping a keen eye on the conflict and diplomatic dancing that is happening and it is great to have your updates coming.

We are just afraid to ever comment due to the sensitive nature of the current situation.

Hope you can still give Thoth a good fight

[Nyktorion]

Thanks for the kind words Darkmantle! I'm not sure whether I can resist Thoth's onslaught for much longer, but Ill try, at least

Turn 164

Foreign news: WarriorKnight researched Engineering, and Mardoc researched Iron Working. Due to the imminent giant wars, the intended use for both of these techs seems quite obvious to me.

So, what happened in the last turn?



As you can see, I did not lose many units this turn - but boy, those units that I did lose hurt! Thoth getting another golden age puts yet another layer of challenge onto the situation for the other four civs in this game... About Margalard, he's here - not quite at "the edge of civilization"



With sanctuary active, this giant ape will probably go to visit Thoth - and with his 22 strength, there's the hope that he might sow at least a bit of chaos in the Malakim lands. On the other hand, I'm afraid that even stygian guards fortified in malakim cities are well prepared to handle him, so it's probably not necessary for Thoth to draw an Eidolon away from the front.

Speaking of the front: now that the treants of my world spell are gone, Thoth is moving in again. Here's a stack in front of F.Destination:



Then, there's a few more units waiting behind the frontlines:



Oh, and there are already the first Rathas waiting to start out:



Finally, Thoth has started to move in against Hyll along the shorelines:



These attackers hit some of my ships with a tsunami, so I regrouped my privateers:



With most of my remaining forces being in F.Destination, my reaction focused on Thoth's stack there. I started by trying out the Infernal Grimoire (which is currently held by a worker, such that my actual units don't waste their spell casting opportunity for the turn/risk their lives reading the grimoire). The worker was lucky and cast Wither! I followed up with one maelstrom, three fireballs (that's all I have left), and five tiger attacks. I also tried rust twice, but all units resisted. Some results of that barrage:



The final result on his Eidola (two of them are defending that stack!) are not overwhelming:



I figured that following up with an attack of my actual units would equal suicide, and hence my stack passed this turn.

In my cities, I made heavy use of the whip this turn. I'm trying to get reinforcements into F.Destination, I'm trying to get a number of cheap bodies into Hyll into order to "chump-block" Thoth's attackers there for some time, and I'm getting my first royal guards out.

Generally, I have a huge problem at my hands now: most of my dangerous unist (read: mages) are gone, my treants are gone, my front lines are crumbling, and Thoth's water walkers are getting into my backlines now. I feel that I would need a miracle to keep the Ljosalfar nation from being subjugated by the Malakim. The one thing that's left to do for me is trying to maximise the chance for that miracle to occur...

One way I feel I can enlarge the chance for a miracle to occur is to simply buy time by throwing a lot of bodies into Thoth's way. The more time I can take away from him that way, the closer the expiration of his NAP with Mardoc gets...

Finally, Diplo:

I just sent a message to Königsegg (at Heisenberg's address), and summarised my diplomatic status with the Sheaim, as he requested in the tech thread.

Hi Königsegg,

first off, thanks for taking over for Heisenberg in our FFH game!

Concerning our recent diplomacy, I currently don't really see any arrangements between our empires which are not reflected in in-game trades (the death and fire gifts are actually a death-fire trade, though). Recent communication between myself and Heisenberg (and also mardoc) has focused on WarriorKnight thinking that the Sheaim might have sunk one of his caravels with a privateer, and thus potential conflicts arising out of that. If WarriorKnight should indeed attack you, I can't really send any aid either: I have a NAP with with WarriorKnight running until T190, and Thoth's army is pretty much about to march into my lands (actually, all four of the remaining players were in an alliance against Thoth, who is threatening to run away with the game, before those tensions between WarriorKnight and Heisenberg arose). On top of that, I've still promised WarriorKnight to deliver Air mana to him (in return for enchantment mana, which he already delivered); I'll try to delay that delivery, but I can't promise that WarriorKnight won't come to me and insist that I fulfil my part of that deal soon. I think Mardoc is able to spare some assistance in case of an Elohim-Sheaim war, though, but obviously, he knows the details about that better.

best regards,
Nyktorion

[Nyktorion]

Turn 165

First off, here's Königsegg's response to my diplo summary:

Hey,

Thanks for the quick update.
Well after looking through his current situation, I kinda concluded that victory is totally out of grasp.
But I intend to at least play on and ensure that all existing deals or arrangements still go through.
I am rather clueless about what exactly happened with the caravel-privateer incident, and have no idea what are my current deals with WK are.
At least now I know that WK might just declare war on me anytime.
Well do not worry about delaying WK; go ahead and fulfil the Air mana deal. There isn't much of a point to salvage a sinking boat like me

Do let me know if you require any resources from me. I will help out if able, esp when Thoth is on a runaway and WK is my potential enemy, the best I could do now is to support you and Mardoc before the Sheaim goes back to hell.

Wish you good luck in defending against Thoth!

Regards,
Koenigsegg

There only one thing I could think of that could help me more against Thoth: I could request to get the two death manas for free specters. Unfortunately, that would cripple the Sheaim completely, and only give me 1 or 2 additional defenders (newly trained adepts' skeletons), so I donÄt really dare to ask that.

About my turn: I researched Poisons this turn. I'll have an archer in Bruti (which has one of my hunting lodges) finished at the end of this turn, so I'll shift Bruti to assassin training from then on.

The event log from last turn:



Ouch, quite a few units gone, with no losses on Thoth's side! Especially Orthus' Axe hurts a lot here, giving his two Eidola the blitz ability. Thoth also used a few blinds this turn; a few units in F.Destination (inclusing a mage and three priests) are held.

WarriorKnight has broken his NAP with the Sheaim this turn - I can't really do anything about it currently; his cities are even just defended by warriors - I think I still can't spare the resources to attack even if I wanted:



So, here is what I can highlight of Thoth's stack in front of F.Destination:



And heres Thoth's reserve near the (now air) mana node:



Finally, Thoth's naval troop threatening Hyll:



I put another archer into Hyll, and whipped some more units in my mainland cities. Moreover, now, finally even all cities on Teldrassil are back into unit (privateer) production mode.

Near F.Destination, I threw all fireballs I coul summon (I had two nonblinded mages left), and all tigers I could resummon at Thoth's pair of Eidola. The result:



I couldn't harm Elfbane too much, and the unnamed Eidolon (with the axe) remained completely unscathed. Thus, I refrained from further counter attacks.

[Nyktorion]

Turn 166

Thoth has won what I deem the most important milestone of his war against me. Here are the relevant sections from the event log for this turn:







There are two big losses in this: first, my one border city is gone; now even his non-naval stacks gain the ability to realistically threaten several of my cities at once. Second, my main army, including all mages is gone, which cuts down my ability to counterattack.

As you can also see, WarriorKnight has captured two of Königsegg's cities. My hunter has been in that area for a long time, so he took a picture:



Here's Thoth's stack in front of Hyll:



And here's the new front line:



With just two archers and a (newly built) royal guard available to defend Pink Dot, I decided to abandon it. I withdrew the two archers, hoping to have them help creating a larger roadblock further back.

Finally, I sent a diplomatic message to my remaining allies, explaining my dire situation. Since I consider my own situation pretty much lost now, I try to see whether I can still help the alliance in some way.

Dear Heisenberg/Königsegg and Mardoc,

I bring grave news from my side of the efforts against Thoth. His army has just finished off my main stack (including my mages; I don't think I'll have the time to bring any new adepts to 10 experience points), and captured the border fortress of F.Destination. Furthermore, a few of his naval units (two Eidola, three Stygian guards, a cultist and a privateer) are currently busy threatening my coastal backline of core cities; I suppose that these troops will take my city of Hyll within two turns. With my army basically reduced to whatever I can whip out of my cities quickly, I expect his army to march through my remaining cities relatively quickly (much quicker than through Khandar and F.Destination anyway).

I will try to delay him as much as possible with units I throw into his way; if there is anything else I can still do to help our alliance, please let me know.

best regards,
Nyktorion

[Nyktorion]

Turn 167

What happened at the interturn? Well, here is the combat log:





Another city (Pink Dot) lost. Furthermore, Thoth has researched Religious Law, so I expect Chalid to be added to Thoth's arsenal quite soon.

On a more pleasant note, I got the option to start another undercouncil vote:



Since the only outsider from the undercouncil has effectively changed from "friend of the alliance" to "foe of the alliance", I decided to fund some dissidents against non-undercouncil-members.

On to the current war situation. Here is Thoth's stack of troops outside Hyll:



Since only a single tiger remains, I am certain that I'll lose Hyll during Thoth's turn. Hence, I evacuated the tiger, whipped the most expensive land unit I could (a hunter), and closed the "Hyll" chapter of this turn.

Some of Thoth's troops are already at the gates of Yonna:



All of my soldiers in Yonna, and both archers 1NW of Yonna (who were evacuated from Pink Dot) got blinded, so I don't have any tactical options there.

Diplo:

Mardoc responded to the message I sent last turn (only to me, not to Königsegg):

Nyktorion,

I'm very sorry to hear that. Delay is probably the most I can ask; if
you can keep Thoth out of position, I might have a chance to be
effective when our NAP expires. I assume that if I can threaten him
effectively, he might pull back forces from your front.

Unfortunately, I still have 4-5 turns before I can do that without
breaking my NAP, and my military production schedule is aimed for T171
anyway.

Alternately, well, it's been clear for a while that Thoth was
dominating this game. I probably should not have signed the latest
NAP with him. At worst, well, I'll look forward to seeing you in the
next game, which might not take too long from now .

- Mardoc

Not a lot of game relevant news, but friendly words (obviously already rather directed at the out-of-game level, as indicated by the reference to the next game)

Königsegg wrote something to both of us:

Hi,

It is sad to hear that our alliance is getting torn apart so soon. My war with WK hasn't been going great for me either; lost some cities last turn and I foresee myself losing another when I play the next turn.

Mardoc, let us know if there's anything we could do to increase your chances of winning. From the looks of Nyk's comments and my situation, the race is on to see which one of us gets eliminated first.

Nyk, I do have some random privateers located in between your culteral borders and WK's. Would they be of any help against Thoth if I were to send them over?
Kindly advise me on the route I should take if you wish.
Regards
Koenigsegg

Mardoc's response to that:

At this point, the only thing you can really do to help is slow Thoth.
Privateers might have that effect, if carefully coordinated.

If I can handle Thoth, I can also handle WK, but that's a pretty big
if at the moment.

So, I responded to the privateer question by Königsegg, and added what news I had from this turn:

Hi,

first, my war status update: Pink Dot has fallen, and I expect to lose Hyll, and maybe also Yonna next turn.

Concerning the privateer suggestion: right now, Thoth's Eidola, Stygian guards and cultists have switched from water tiles to coastal land tiles; but you never know when that'll change. At the very least, Thoth will have to cross a batch of water in order to take my last four cities. Your privateers are currently in the southern part of that "batch of water" between my mainland and island cities. If you go northwards until you see Evermore, you'll reach the part of the sea where Thoth will most likely cross to my island. If you go further west from there, you'll reach Hyll, which is currently under coastal siege.

Another issue came up during my turn: I got the chance to propose another undercouncil resolution. As before, my selection criterion for the resolution is "what gives the people in our alliance the best effect compared to the outsiders?" Since Thoth is not the only outsider anymore, but WarriorKnight is now one, as well, the choice was a rather straightforward one for me: I selected the "fund dissidents" option.

best regards,
Nyktorion

And shortly after that, another thing to tell about cam to my mind:

Another small thing: I just noticed (and probably you noticed, too) that Thoth has just finished researching religious law; so we should expect Chalid soon...

[Nyktorion]

Turn 168

As Thoth announced, we will get the Blight next turn. The armageddon counter rose from 23 to 31 during this single turn. I'm not that concerned about that: health from forests and the EXP trait should cushion a lot of that hit, and my city population is rather low (and still shrinking) due to lots of whipping, anyway.

Thoth "revolted" to Ashen Veil/Theocracy/Sacrifice the Weak/Conquest, so he's tuned for more initial experience on his units, and prepared for the blight.

Thoth is advancing faster than I expected. I already anticipated the loss of Hyll and Yonna, but a commando ritualist also managed to get to Kabhalg. The result:



2W1S of Kabhalg, you can see my first assassin, who chipped an adept off of of Thoth's army.

Here is an overview of my remaining mainland territory:



Only an eidolon in the hyll area currently has the commando promotion, and I had a warrior in Evermore, who will be joined by an assassin whose training just finished. So, unless there's another commando promotion coming in during Thoth's turn, or his caravel is already loaded with a second, amphibious attacker for Evermore, I expect Thoth to take Evermore in two turns. I generally expect Bruti to fall one turn after that. I'll put most of my remaining units into Bruti (even though Evermore has the great library), since Evermore is exposed to tsunamis; I think I have more hope of doing any further damage to Thoth that way.

Diplo:

Mardoc's response to my last report:

I'm afraid I stopped checking the trade screen a while ago, so thanks
for that piece of information. I suppose it shouldn't surprise me
that Thoth finally settled on one religion when he's in the opening of
a world war. The good news is that means his cultists/stygians are a
limited resource: the bad news is that may not matter given the
distance between them and me.

- Mardoc

Well, looks like Thoth just proved our Chalid theories wrong (for the next 5 turns, at least) with his latest civic swap :neenernee

I give another war report to Mardoc and Königsegg:

Hi everyone,

here's another war update. Sadly, Thoth is conquering my lands faster than expected. Due to a commando ritualist slipping through faster than all other units, he razed Kabhalg, my border city towards the Elohim, on top of my expected losses (his conquest of Hyll and Yonna). I estimate Evermore, my capital, to be taken in 2 turns, and my last mainland city, Bruti, in 3 turns. If he gets the commando promotion on some more units, those times may be shorter.

To Heisenberg/Königsegg: Hyll, where most members of Thoth's naval strike force are located, is 6W1N of your privateers' current position. There are some more members of that naval force (including 1 of its 2 Eidola) inland, 5W of your privateers' current position.

-- Nyktorion

[Nyktorion]

Turn 169

So, what happened on the interturn? Let's see:

WarriorKnight has researched Arcane Lore...

Thoth progressed much more rapidly than I estimated last turn:





Both Evermore and Bruti are lost! At least, a warrior took down a Ratha before he died a heroic death.

You can also see here that my undercouncil proposition went through (even Thoth voted for it; so if he's currently in an alliance with WarriorKnight, that alliance is not too tight, at least). Thoth has gained even further advantages with two more wonders and a hero.

WarriorKnight is advancing rapidly through the Sheaim lands, as well, but I still can't believe it will suffice for him against Thoth once the Sheaim and Ljosalfar are eliminated.



Blight has hit, but out of my four cities, only Eaca is in starvation now



However, with the armageddon counter already at 39, the horsemen will come quite soon.

Thoth's forces seem ready to start crossing the water towards Teldrassil this turn, and the caravel would add a lot of mobility there:



Thanks to the caravel, he could hit my collection of privateers with a tsunami last turn. Still, with Thoth being able to hawk-scout from Evermore, hence having nearly-complete information about my naval arrangement, but still having the mobility of his caravel, I figured that my best chance to strike would be this turn. My own privateers may be damaged, and my chance for success slim, but that chance for success should still be higher now than in any of the next turns.

Thus, I threw all caravels in reach at the above highlighted stack. However, said slim chance for some success did not come to bear, and I only managed to bring down the top Stygian guard to 7.7 health...

Diplo:

Königsegg has answered my war report this turn:

Well I'm losing 1 city per turn to WK currently. I managed to kill off some of his longbowmen and monks last turn though.
Hopefully my privateers would be of some use. I will navigate them slowly since Thoth will get his turn first before me.

I might be blowing off my worldspell soon. Intend to burn them with ritualists, use worldspell and send some pz on suicide missions.
Mardoc you might want to keep your units healthy for that.

-Koenigsegg

I don't really have much choice in when to keep my units healthy; I do hope he can use this trump card to good effect before WarriorKnight blitzes through his cities as Thoth blitzes through mine...

[Nyktorion]

Turn 170

Foreign news: WarriorKnight researched Necromany - however, I doubt I'll be doing much with that information at this point in the game. Still, I have a general remark here: the total number of researched techs per civ does reflect the score-wise standing (and also the general standing, maybe except for the Elohim/Lanun relationship) quite well:

Thoth currently has 52 techs
WarriorKnight currently has 44 techs
Mardoc currently has 42 techs
I currently have 32 techs
Königsegg currently has 29 techs
(warning: since this list is just compiled with the C&D data I've collected over time, it comes with the proviso that I might have missed a tech at some point)

On to the actual turn! Not much happened. I haven't seen anything of Thoth's land based forces lately; probably they are all going westwards to defend against Mardoc. He has a naval stack marching towards Teldrassil, though. I suppose that he will take Eaca in 2 turns.



There are some more units in Evermore:



Since Thoth's first stack is able to set foot on Teldrassil next turn (1NW or 1SW of Eaca), I figured that this is the last chance for my privateers to have any impact on the game at all. Hence, I threw all of them at Thoth's Eidola; I figured that a one-in-several-thousand chance to kill an Eidolon is still better than my privateers effectively being reduced to zero. The result: I reduced the two Eidola's strength to 11.7 and 8.4, respectively, and one of my privateers survived thanks to his 20% withdrawal chance.

[Nyktorion]

Turn 171

Foreign news: Stephanos appeared this turn next to Bruti, and he immediately died, probably while attacking a strong defender (an Eidolon?) of Thoth. Königsegg lost Niddhoggstad to WarriorKnight, and is left only with Vargstad now. Finally, Königsegg used his world spell, damaging (not too hard) some of my units, and having no visible effect on the units of Thoth I can see. Oh, and Thoth sunk the privateer of mine which withdrew from combat last turn.

With the purple borders of Niddhoggstad gone, my hunter on the mainland saw a bit of the remains of the Sheaim-Elohim battling:



Since Thoth's main naval force has crossed the waters to Teldrassil, my four cities there have switched to fast producing warrior, or whipping other land units such as priests and royal guards. Still, at least, Eaca is doomed this turn. Here is the current situation:



Diplo:

This turn, Mardoc has his first turn where he is not bound by his NAP with Thoth anymore. Hence, he asked concerning the war again:

Alright, D-Day!

Do you have anything left to take advantage of the temporary setbacks
I can cause for Thoth? Or is this just my turn to attack and die?

- Mardoc

Considering the recent events in my lands, I have to respond negatively:

I'm afraid it's the second option. Thoth has already kicked me off the mainland; all I have left are four coastal cities on my island. He currently has two OO eidola, a caravel, and a few stygian guards en route to take them, as well, so at least, this part of Thoth's forces should not be bothering you for a few more turns. I fully expect the land based forces Thoth used against me (assassins, rathas, ritualists, the two other eidola, archers, and some adepts and mages) come into use against you and WarriorKnight (unless there's some secret deal between Thoth and WarriorKnight, of course), quite soon, though.

best regards,
Nyktorion

Well - at least the game won't drag on too much longer, then :-/. If
I were to cast Raging Seas in the next turn or two, would that be a
help? You'd probably need to temporarily evacuate the coastal cities.
I'm seriously considering doing so for my own front.

I've seen and killed some of all of that, except that his Rathas were
kept too far from the border.

- Mardoc

I'm afraid that I currently don't have the enough material to fruitfully follow up on raging seas (and, of course, Thoth is moving after you and before me). Hence, I suggest you just cast your world spell when it strategically suits you.

If you are indeed going to cast your world spell during the next two turns, I'd appreciate a confirmation of this, so I can do the temporary evacuation of my coastal cities.

best regards,
Nyktorion

Then, there were some three-way Mardoc/WarriorKnight/Nyktorion messages by Mardoc and WarriorKnight:

Just an FYI to the two of you, I declared war on Thoth this turn, and
only managed to take one city. He says there's a surprise waiting for
me in the fog in my backlines, too - so I won't be too surprised if
Thoth is in a dominant position soon. I'll hold out the best I can.

- Mardoc

Best of luck against Thoth. Just so you know, the Sheaim will be eliminated next turn so I will be moving my army over to attack Thoth over the next few turns. I'm hope I can get in position before Sanctuary runs out, but we'll have to wait and see.

WK

I did kill a lot of Malakim units on the remnants coast and expect to
continue doing so, so you probably don't need your whole army at
first.

Still, I figure the next ten turns will tell us if there's any point
to continuing, or if we just concede to Thoth.

- Mardoc

[Nyktorion]

Turn 172

I'll just start this turn report with a screenshot of the event log:



Königsegg has been eliminated, while Mardoc at least looks like he is able to fight back against Thoth.

On my side, I lost Eaca, the first Teldrassil city, this turn. Thoth already has units in range of all three of my remaining cities:



However, I am rather certain I'll still live to see the next turn. Thoth simply doesn't have enough units in range to take Berk or Eodd immediately yet. I do expect to be eliminated within 2-3 turns, though.

Diplo:

First, the continuation of my conversation with Mardoc:

The trouble is, if you're not able to follow up, then it becomes more
a tactical thing than a strategic one, and that'll depend on where
Thoth parks his stacks every turn. I'll try to get you warning, but
I'm not really sure how best to do so.

- Mardoc

Okay, good to have that cleared up, though. However, with Thoth advancing on my remaining cities, the evacuation idea is out of the window, anyway. So I simply answer:

Hi,

thanks for trying to give me an advance warning of your world spell. However, it looks like I won't have any use for such a warning any longer. Thoth has just taken one of my four remaining cities, and has at least one unit in range of each other city of mine. Obviously, this situation forbids any evacuation of my cities.

-- Nyktorion

WarriorKnight has added another message to Mardoc and myself. I kept silent in that thread - I simply feel I don't have anything useful to add about the discussions there.

I can see Thoth's army near the remnants with a hawk. I'm sending you what I know of his army in case there's something that you might have missed or not seen over there.

(The 2 units not covered were a full strength mobility Radiant Guard and a half strength Ratha, I can't see anything else particularly noteworthy NE of Golden Cabin)

WK

Attached pictures:

"Golden Cabin Defenders.JPG":



"Remnants of Patria units.JPG":