Pregame
Ljosalfar aren't the fastest civ in the game by a long way. I picked them partly because I like playing the civ (it suits my style) and partly because I felt they had two diplomatic advantages: early contact and a strong defensive world spell that could deter opportunistic attacks. In my opinion these turned out to be significant in this game. Another thing I didn't really realize until later is that as elves you can stockpile Priests of Leaves without arousing suspicion because you need them to Bloom anyway. So "speak softly and carry a big stick" works well.
Early game
I wasn't pleased at all with the lack of Calendar resources at the start, but got lucky with a Great Sage from the Pyre which kept me slightly above the research curve in the early game. I had to sign a really long NAP with Mist, but it was worth it so that he'd attack someone else (with me providing covert assistance.) The rush he did on Sciz was well planned out and I wouldn't have liked to face it myself. I'd have been happy if he destroyed Sciz and became a strong ally, but unfortunately Ilios managed to break up the attack by supplying copper. In any case, I gained a good city site due to this war - Eaca.
Due to the poor availability of commerce specials and the high availability of animals, I decided to play vertical growth early to cut down on maintenance until I unlocked the Crafting/Mining/BW tree and have my Deruptus + Zoo capital do the heavy lifting. This worked because the general approach this game was to make settling agreements (so there wasn't so much a rush to fill the land.)
Anti-Malakim coalition I
Again early contact was important here because I was able to pass messages around between civs that hadn't contacted each other. Everyone seemed to be complaining about Ilios' GNP, so I suggested they talk to each other about it. Calabim then sent the "tall poppy" letter around and tried to drag me into the fight. There was pretty much no way I could meet the proposed attack schedule without sacrificing a lot of economy, and I told everyone as much. It's not like I would actually get any land since I was on the other side of the world anyway. If the attack had taken place later I would probably have sent some Horsemen. In any case, the attack was poorly coordinated with Serdoa getting trigger happy with Loki, and Lanun being unable to field an army on time.
Wonders
Since everyone was distracted by the fighting decided to pick up some useful wonders. Military Strategy was quite a tech detour, but worth it. Form of the Titan is a very good wonder, and Malakim in particular should never be allowed to have it - it's too easy for them to get to 10/10xp for Lightbringer -> Mage upgrade with it. Anyway, the Titan allowed me to run Military State in place of Apprenticeship and still get +2 XP, while early Heroic Epic allowed me to go mostly infrastructure in my core with one city focused on military. It started off doing 1 priest/turn (80h) then moved close to 1 ratha/turn later (120h.) So the indirect economic impact of both of these was very good.
I had another stroke of luck getting a golden age from an event (saving me burning the Military Strategy Great Commander.) I then built the Menagerie, followed by Great Library. This was probably a mistake, racing Ilios to it was fun but I should have taken Bone Palace instead. Elven golden ages are very good since forest cottages get double-bonused, and I was able to beat the aristofarms while in a golden age - another back to back golden age might have been able to take Infernal Grimoire before Ilios. The great library, in the meantime, takes too long to pay off since you run few specialists until later.
I could have asked for Sciz's marble in trade in return for some other resources + a short term NAP, which would have gotten me the bone palace.
Quests
I sent a hunter on an epic journey to the end of the world after a treasure chest on an inaccessible island. That was fun even though the results had esentially no impact on the game. Also figured out a way to make Barnaxus disappear forever by picking the pieces up with a spider
Sorry about that one Sciz. This spider went on to be useful in the Ilios war later.
Midgame
Darrell forced the pace by going all military for a while and attacking and absorbing Serdoa, I pretty much had to attack someone to keep up in land and the only valid target was Sciz. I actually offered Mist cities from this, but he declined because his economy was in too much of a mess. PoL/Ritualists vs Warriors/Wood Golems turned out to be just as one sided as Vampires vs Warriors/Axes.
Anyway after some long negotiations Darrell and I worked out a secret pact to attack Ilios, who was still playing a very strong economic game. (He wanted it kept secret from the lurkers. Blame him.) I had to get an agreement on an overall division of the world at this point and what would happen in the endgame, because Calabim had a lead on city count after the Serdoa war. I believed the deal to be a fair one. We did not try to mess each other around over loopholes in the agreement, which I appreciated.
Unfortunately Mist decided to suicide against vampires at this point, and Blight slowed down the start of the war by 3 turns because I had to put up health bulidings all over the place which slowed the effective time I had to switch to Empyrean. I managed to prevent any cities starving by doing some quick trades for the health resources I was missing. I didn't mind giving Amelia a good deal on the pigs for it (besides, the Incense I was getting from her for wheat would go up in value when I added Empyrean temples to the Leaves ones I had up.)
I needed Rathas because Ilios' troops were stronger than mine in straight up fighting, so I had to seize the mobility advantage. I'd have produced a lot of Ratha even if there was no war at this time. I will echo Darrell that this war was fun from our side because of the good teamwork. Probably somewhat less fun for Ilios since although Blinding Light didn't come into play much, I never left him a good counterattack against my priests and he got stuck on one city for quite a while. I had to play very cautiously because I wouldn't be able to replace PoL or Ritualists during the war.
Darrell wasn't quite as cautious. A couple of pillaging ratha were killed because he didn't cover them, which resulted in Ilios being able to build a couple of chariots, which then razed a new city he'd put up on the border
Unfortunately for him the lack of paranoia caused serious trouble later.
While the siege was happening I ran a second golden age, built more wonders and got Courthouses everywhere, since spamming units in all cities at this point wouldn't have won the war any faster. During this siege I had to pull a significant amount units off to keep Hyborem in line though, which was annoying. At the end of this golden age I had a significant economic lead because I never went 100% military.
Endgame
Amelia managed to amass a very impressive HA count for a comparatively low number of cities and set a nice trap. With better magic support she would have actually won against the Vampires. Much respect for this.
Now the fact that Calabim can draft summoners and feast them up to Commando levels is a bit silly, it'd have been interesting putting that up against the fortress I was building. As for my army composition, by t200 I'd have Druids, Archmages, Beastmasters, Mages backed by all 4 sub-towers and 9+ nodes, Mithril Champions/Ratha, Rangers, Assassins, assorted priests. By the way, 200 vampires and half of them commando was my best estimate too. Wouldn't it have sucked if one of us researched Mithril Working and didn't have Mithril?
Anyway it'd have been an epic fight which would have showcased a bunch of high end units. I won't reveal my battle plans in case we decide to play that out. I think it could have gone either way.
Anyway, you guys were a pleasure to play with. I actually quite enjoyed watching my civilization grow at the slow PBEM pace. Since there was always something happening whether it be cottage growth, terraforming, wonders, or cultural expansion. Elves are nice for that.
