Sun on the Sands - A Malakim AAR

[thebeef1980]

DISCLAIMER – I’m not sure which of the various forums (story, FFH, Strategy, FFH Strategy) this thread belongs in. It seems to me it’s of most interest to people who play the FFH mod so it starts off here. Feel free to move it somewhere more appropriate.

So, this is my first AAR and nearly-but-not-quite my first post on these forums. Hello, everyone!

Subject to the demands of work, my plan is to try out as many of the civs I can before I get bored. As I’m an indifferent player at best, any AAR may end prematurely as I’m trolleyed by the bloodthirsty AI. House rules are:

• Shadow (v.30f)
• Normal speed

• Prince level (ambitious for me)

• Default rules (‘custom scenario’ and then change nothing) on Nikis’ superb Knights of Erebus map. These are:
  
  [*]Aggressive AI
  [*]No Tech Brokering
  [*]Permanent Alliances
  [*]Require Complete Kills​

The format will pay gentle homage to (trans.: blatantly rip off) Sisutil’s All-Leaders Challenge.

So! First up is the Malakim, because it’s a cold and miserable January here in the City of London and there’s just something appealing about the idea of a tribe of sun-worshipping desert dwellers right now.

TURN ONE



“What is that, Akil, my love?” The boy’s mother gave a mock-frown at the little patch of sand her son was playing with intently. “It is not safe to poke around in the sand. One day a scorpion will bite you, and then – then you will be sorry!”

The boy did not look up. “It is safe, mother. I have beaten the ground for scorpions, and for fire-ants, and I have salt around me to protect from the wandering Djinni.” His mother smiled. Then her eyes widened in surprise as she saw what Akil was doing. “That mound of sand looks just like your father’s tent!”

“Yes, mother. And see! This is Chief Kikare’s long tent, and Uncle N’Tamba’s tent with the two tentpoles, and this little circle here – this is the lake, with the huts of each tribe’s chiefs around it.” In no more than five minutes’ play, the boy had built, in miniature and from memory, a nearly perfect replica of the Malakim tribe-of-tribes’ annual meeting place on the lakeside hill some three days’ travel away. But his brow was now furrowed, and his face sad. “Mother, it is not right! Would it not be better if the chief’s hut was not here but there? And Uncle N’Tamba – he leads the hunters. Should his tent not then be nearer theirs, but also near to that of the wives that cook? And if…” the boy trailed off, shyly, but his mother motioned him to continue. “I mean, we come here. Every year. We could take some of the stones from the side of the lake, and make a…a stone tent, to keep things in the shade while we are not there.”

Observing boy and mother, Varn Gosam smiled. He would speak with the gathered chiefs tomorrow about his plans for settling a permanent city. But for today, he had found his architect.

Let’s take a look at what the Malakim have going for them.

LEADER

Varn Gosam, apparently an elf for whom things got a bit hairy in the fog between worlds. VG is determined to spread the word of Lugus, the sun-god, among the desert tribes and as the game starts, the ice having receded already (I haven’t chosen end of winter as an option) he has just unified the scattered wanderers with a view to founding a city.

Traits:

• Good-aligned
• Hero: Teutorix. A late-game gunpowder hero who gives +1 vote at the Overcouncil and has bonuses fighting in the desert.
• Creative:+2 culture/city, double production speed for carnival and obelisk.
• Adaptive: can change second trait from time to time. It starts as financial: +1G on every plot with 2, double production speed for market and money-changer.

UNIQUE FEATURES

• All units start with the ‘nomad’ promotion, which gives +20% strength in desert terrain (attack and defence) and double desert movement.
  
• The Malakim cannot build assassins, which is a nice touch given the prevalence of desert-dwelling-assassing-using-oops-they’re-really-arabs-aren’t-they clone tribes in fantastic fiction.
  
• World Spell: Religious Fervour – creates a priest of the player’s religion in every city that has the state religion. These priests start with 1xp for each such city.
  
• Starting Mana: Life, Mind, Sun.

UNIQUE UNITS

I can’t improve upon Grey Fox’s pdf, so I shan’t try. Instead, I’ll steal it! See below.

• We have an upgraded priest who gets +1 first strike and is immune to further first strikes, and who starts with the Sentry promotion (+1 visibility) and, like all Malakim, has the nomad promotion. Perfect for fogbusting in the deserts around our starting area.
  
• We also have an upgraded horse-archer. This will be a great raider IF I can get the hefty prereqs – stirrups, archery and stable.
  
• Oh, and we get swordsmen not axemen. Civilised, see?

UNIQUE BUILDING

• A mid-game UB, the Citadel of Light helps to preserve your cities by giving a free fireball and some extra defence when enemies are closing in. My instinctive feeling is that this won’t be so useful – either you’ll be winning a war or you will be being caned by the opposition in which case a fireball and +5% def won’t do much good – so it’s probably a bit of a flavour touch here.

STARTING TECH

• Arcane Chants – can construct Obelisk, leads to Education and Mysticism.

STARTING POSITION



As you can see, we start up on a plains hill with a lake to the NW and desert further to the E and W. With this mod’s powerful focus on agriculture and farms, a river is crucial in the starting game, and fortunately we have three, leading North, East and South from the lake respectively. I’m going to settle on just this spot, so it’s time to think about the city radius.

City #1
The starting square is a plains hill on a river.
There are 3 lake squares. Until I get fishing, which is not a priority, I can’t do anything with these. Back-shelf for now.
2 grassland squares, one of which is on a river.
Two more plains hills to the south.
Otherwise it’s all plains or desert flood plains, with a smattering of woodlands for early building.
There’s also a couple of marble deposits visible.

STARTING STRATEGY.

Military/Expansion
With all the woods and plains, this first city could be pretty handy for pumping out units. Since there are so many flood plains around, it may be that there are better choices downriver for a settler factory, and we’ll need the early units anyway. So plan A is to churn out warriors and lightbringers until I hit the happiness limit (5 in my capital) and then 2 workers and only then a settler.

Domestic Economy
As others have shown, the current incarnation of ffH is all about the specialist economy, which requires lots of farms. This goes very nicely with the philosophical trait as specialist economies produce plenty of great people, so the first building priority will be an elder council to get that initial sage and the Academy.

Research
Defence being key in this game, once we have mysticism I’ll push for camel riders asap to patrol the borders efficiently. When they are in place, I’ll try to pick up Empyrean by beelining for the Honour tech. No idea where to go after that – the magic techs maybe? Suggestions welcome.


Neighbours
Don’t know yet.

So – brave new world. One hopeful tribe. One amateurish leader. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[BeefontheBone]

Think you missed the start location pic there. Also, any chance of resizing that enormous pic? I've got a widescreen monitor and I have to scroll to see it all - I dread to think what it'd be like at 800*600 on dialup!

Good luck!

 

[thebeef1980]

Amended as per. Thanks BotB!

 

[BeefontheBone]

No problem. By the way, it's good to see someone finally worked out where you were after all these years!

 

[thebeef1980]

Work's been busy - which is both good and bad. Impressed that anyone noticed!

 

[thebeef1980]

You could always tell when Temba was angry because his eyes, large and dark, would grow narrow. Right now, they were little more than slits. He, Temba, chief and son of a chief, had had to endure the ignominy of watching this stranger – this ‘Varn’ – dictate strange new ways to his father, his clan, and his entire tribe for most of his young life. More than angry, Temba was ashamed. He had seen the Matala – the proudest of hunter clans, apart of course from his own Enkidu – reduced to grubbing in the dirt. As he had walked past, he had felt their humiliation like burning sand upon his back.

Temba and the other chiefs’ sons, and the mightiest priests of the old tribes, had marched unopposed into Varn’s sun palace, and stood together within the atrium, sweating slightly in the pre-noon heat.

They came into a vast hall, at the end of which sat a throne. The walls behind the throne and to either side were made of whitestone, inset somehow with the soft, yellow metal that Varn had called ‘gold’, save for a long, empty window on the right hand wall. The window had been set to give a view of the lake so well disguised that Temba at first thought the wall had been fashioned from living water. Then they saw Varn, kneeling beneath the throne. Temba’s group fanned out, spears at the ready.



“Varn Gosam. I curse whatever spirits led my father to bring you here!” Temba stepped forward, jabbing his spear angrily to punctuate his speech.

“By what right do you shame us? Settled, our priests cannot praise the wandering gods! Settled, our hunters cannot pursue their prey! These hands were made to be steeped in the blood of our food! Now you cover them in mud and dirt. Are we worms, beetles, to be crushed in your palace? No! We are Malakim!”

As he moved grimly forward, his men acclaimed him, but Varn remained silent. Slowly, the elf rose from his prayers to face them, his countenance kindly.
Then, Varn’s design, planned with Akil a generation ago, was discovered. At some hidden signal, the ceiling above the throne parted, the great stones creaking aside. The full glare of the noonday sun flooded the room, amplified a thousandfold by the gold inset and white marble. The waters of the lake, shining brilliantly through the window, seemed almost a second sun. All was warmth, and light.

For moments, that unbearable brightness shined, until Temba and his fellows were blinded by its radiance, and the room filled with their despairing cries. Then Varn walked among them then, gently laying down their weapons and soothing their fears.

“When I first saw Lugus, I was blinded like you. Oh, your sight will return in some weeks, but I wanted you to see His gift for yourselves. A new age is coming, and we need no tribes, nor chiefs, nor yet priests of the nomad ways. Only prayer will sustain us. This is not my palace, it is Lugus’ – let Him reign here. I ask you now, humbly, to be His hunters again, hunters not of game, but of knowledge. You will be my first council, and you, Temba – you my first sage.”

On his knees now, the chief’s son wept. But his tears were tears of joy.

 

[thebeef1980]

DAWN OF THE MALAKIM

Turns 1-45

In the first few turns there is nothing much to do, save for building a scout and using the warrior and lightbringer to push back the fog.

The research strategy is to go for agriculture and then get a worker out and about, then mysticism with a switch to God King (the event depicted in the flavour text above).



On turn 15, things start to happen. The ratcatcher’s guild is founded in Golden Leane (It doesn’t last and is gone soon after). A health plant is discovered. This is an interesting event that gives you the choice between a short-term happiness boost, or unhappiness with the chance of extra health. We don’t really need either yet, but as health is easier to come by than happiness I go for the happiness.

Agriculture arrives on turn 20, giving me time for a scout and half a warrior before I switch to a worker build. Agriculture gives +1 health to all cities and +1 food to all farms (although I don’t have any yet).

The first worker finally follows on turn 31 and starts building farms up and down the river to the East.

Our first neighbours introduce themselves: Alexis of the Calabim and Rhoanna of the Hippus. This could be quite an aggressive game.

Turns 46 - 124

Turn 46 – Mysticism! I switch immediately to God King (+50% production and commerce in the capital, +10% distance costs) and start building an elder council. Focusing only on this, it will take 5 turns.



A second city is eventually founded to the east, called Timberling. It is right next to the mirror of light and the “Circle of Myrh”, which yields two benefits: the mirror of light gives 3 production as a worked square, and the proximity to either the mirror or the Circle named site (I’m not sure which) gives +1 happiness, represented by the legend “we love our national parks”.



Both Golden Leane and Timberling will therefore be able to grow to size 5 without trouble. Timberling is also sited on an incense plot with a second one square to the North, which raises a question – is it worth a detour from the overall plan (beeline for Empyrean and Horse Archers)? I decide to make a quick detour to pick up Calendar for the early happiness boost. Timberling’s first building is one of our elder councils.

In the meantime, Golden Leane has hit size 5 and now has a healthy food surplus, so it gets a sage in the new elder council building.

The first great sage pops a few turns later (turn 86). I use him for an academy in the capital.

Golden Leane has been building only warriors for a while now and we now have seven. I take two of these and go exploring the borders, where they kill a barbarian raiding party of what look like orcs.



Turn 91 – I notice my first error (or at least, the first that I’ve actually noticed). Timberling has grown to size 5 but it’s unhealthy, presumably due to all the flood plains. Damn. I switch to building an infirmary (+1 health, +1 more with reagents and +1 happy with the public healers civic).

Turn 96 – I get a chance to use the ‘adaptive’ civic, which I do, swapping out financial (not enough 2-gold squares yet) for philosophical and the extra GP points. This also gives cheaper elder councils.



A few turns later I see that Sailor’s Dirge has been killed and that Loki has been built. I hope he doesn’t come here – that character’s a pain to kill. Golden Leane starts on a second settler. This one will follow the river to the south, and the third will go north.



The desert to the West looks pretty extensive - I send some warriors out to investigate in a sort of recon in force.

Calendars are completed on turn 106. Before I can get horse archers I need horses. To see horses I need animal domestication. That’s the next step, and it’s 8 turns away right now. I’m out of cash too. Time for the science rate to start coming down...

Elohim and Khazad show up on turn 109.



Animal husbandry arrives on turn 114, right on schedule. There are horses near the capital, thankfully. Irritatingly, I have accidentally let the capital grow to size 6 and there’s now a group of unsightly dissidents – probably more chiefs’ kids unhappy with the status quo – rampaging around the streets.

Turns 125 - 151

The research emphasis is now on Empyrean. We get way of the wise in turn 140. Simultaneously, the Sheaim turn up and ask for open borders. They can sod off, evil types that they are.



A lightbringer spots a tempting spot to the northeast.



Next city goes up, in the river valley to the north west.

With all of these cities, it may be worth switching from God King to City States soon. Probably not just yet – the maintenance costs aren’t that high – but once the city to the NE goes up, and when there’s next a handy new civic, I’ll make the switch.



Turn 151 – 5th in tech. Great! Einon Logos of the Elohim offers open borders and I’m happy to accept.

 

[BeefontheBone]

No problem. By the way, it's good to see someone finally worked out where you were after all these years!

I knew you wouldn't get that - it was a "where's the beef" joke. Which makes me look older than I am

I'd say settling on an incense plot was probably an error of sorts - you lose the massive commerce production (like an instant town, especially since they don't get a hammer eventually like in vanilla) from putting a plantation on it. You need philosophy to get the happiness boost from incense, btw, so you don't gain it at calendar. It does give an extra happy face for each temple in a city though, which makes it very tasty once you get philosophy (which should be soon IIRC since you're heading for Empyrean).

 

[thebeef1980]

Ah - my mistake. Antiquated U.S. political humour, gotta love it! Actually, I was in Taiwan a couple of years ago, during their election, and was amused by a report in one of the partisan papers that used it - in literal translation - in Chinese ("niu rou zai na li?" (the cow-meat is where?)).

You're probably right about the incense, and I went through a lot of soul-searching (it's a nicer expression than 'dithering') before doing so. I had thought that the +happy would come with calendar and had been wondering where it was. Philosophy was indeed shortly down the line, as the next instalment should show. I've noticed that the game's slowing down hugely as the turns go on - I'm up to 90% usage of 2 gigs of memory each turn now.

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

Can you upload the save so i can play it too it looks like a great start location

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

Can you upload the save so i can play it too it looks like a great start location

Download nikis-knighs map. Its a premade map, with fixed starting positions.

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

wher is it? i cant find the link...

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

its the knight erubus zip.
Just starting playing it, But thus far I think the malakim have the best/overpowerd starting positionhttp://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=247328

 

[woodelf]

How's this coming? I love AARs.

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

Your still playing?

 

[thebeef1980]

Yep, still playing - it's been a busy few weeks though. Post to follow.

 

[thebeef1980]

I was there at the feast, and the entertainment after. I was there when the river began to flow.

The room was flooded with candlelight, but somehow I’d never been anywhere darker. And the shadows that the candles cast! Sunlight casts shadows, but those here in the Calabim castle were as different from the shadows of home as quicksand is from firm ground, flickering and twisting in unnatural patterns. Even the air seemed dull and heavy, as though it hoped with each breath that we might expire and cease disturbing it.

The giant symbol of Kilmorph seemed as out of place as we were. It hung from the wall, dominating the room. As we stood guard suspiciously behind our chieftain, its shadow ebbed and flowed toward us, and young Enkai shifted to keep it from touching him. It relieved our tension then to mock his superstition. We did not know, not then.

It was the better part of an hour before the bride arrived, and all the while her brother made conversation. He spoke of his hopes for the wedding, and of the flourishing of trade he expected would follow. He talked of concessions for our tribe, lands that could be jointly farmed, and he talked darkly of the retribution awaiting the Elohim, whose monks he blamed for the abduction of a number of young boys from bordering Calabim cities. I don’t think that Chieftain Jugera was listening though. In truth, he did little to disguise his annoyance at the wait.

When our Chieftain’s intended arrived the guests all stood, the Calabim bowing as was their custom, our party clapping as was ours. The feast was brought in by one of the pale servants. They had a wan look to them, and I overheard our Chieftain’s lightbringer asking our hosts about this.
“The air, poor things,” came the reply. “They are from our master’s domain near the capital, by the sea. Our doctors say that it’s the air here.”

“No,” said another of the Calabim, gesturing vigorously. “It’s nothing to do with the air. It’s in their nature – inferior stock, you see. It’s like horses – you people have horses, don’t you?”. Our chieftain’s brother, five times master of the ridden games outside Golden Leane and possibly the finest horseman I shall ever see, merely nodded. “So – as with horses, the, er, the favoured prosper and grow strong, and this is passed to their sons and daughters, and you breed better, er, better horses from them. These pale types you see here are born from inferior stock.”

The bride’s brother – I noticed that neither he nor his sister shared the paleness of their servants – nodded in approval. “It is as Kilmorph said,” he proclaimed, his voice low and pleasant. “Beneath the earth, in the comforting dark, the gold, and the copper, and the baser metals are each set out. Each has its place, each is a gift. Each has its nature, from high to low, from gold to dross. So we are here – the high rule, and the low serve.” It didn’t sound much like the Kilmorph I’d heard of, but then I’m just a warrior.

When our Chieftain and his bride had retired to their bedchambers, we stood watch in the courtyard outside. We laughed, wagered, rubbed our hands together to keep out the cold. We thought it was an easy duty. Given the choice now, I’d rather have been facing an Orcish horde.

They came after midnight. A dozen of the servants we’d seen earlier, that same dull look in their eyes, were supposed to be taking our watch. If Enkai hadn’t spotted the knives we’d all be dead now. Armed and ready, we should have been more than a match for the servants, but they were uncommonly strong - before the lightbringer arrived, driving them back with his sun-spells, three of our men were dead including Enkai.

Just as we killed the last one we heard the first screams: men and women both, like animals being butchered, rising to a rich and terrible cacophony. If our Chieftain hadn’t come running out then, we’d probably have stormed the place, screams or no screams, but he did and we ran. He had cuts and bruises all over his body and a wild look in his eyes, and his body was soaked with blood that wasn’t his. He never told us what went on in that bridal chamber. We never asked. But it wasn’t her blood either, that’s for sure, because as we ran, we could still hear her and her brother, laughing like maniacs.

When we got back to Timberling, we heard about the six-month plague that people were calling the river of blood. Nearly a third of Golden Leane was gone – dead – just like that, and the cities like Timberling had been devastated. Only the soldiers’ barracks, out in the countryside, had been spared. No-one knew how it started. No-one knows now, really. But what I do know is that they say when our Chieftain spoke with Emperor Varn about this, the Emperor was in a rage for days, and when he came out of that palace of his, we were at war with the Calabim and allied with the Elohim.

- Warleader Gosam Lefkiku, letter to his brother.

 

[thewyrm]

You are doing an amazing job on the "in character" stories! Keep up the good work, I'm a sucker for great AARs.

 

[thebeef1980]

Turn 152 FLASHPOINT – East Malaki. Expansion in that direction has been brought to an abrupt halt by the en-citadelled Calabim there. Since it looks like the desert may extend into their land too, and since the Calabim are a late-game powerhouse, I decide that it’s worth focusing effort on taking them down sooner rather than later – even if this will involve falling behind a bit on tech. I decide that what is needed to achieve this is 20 warriors (or 10 Empyrean Guard, depending on how many I can bring online by then) and 10 horsemen (or 5 horse archers – again, whichever comes first). I guess that the next 80 turns is a reasonable timeline, so by turn 230 or so I aim to be complete. To get an industrial base for this will mean settling three more cities asap, one of which will go here, where the hunter is, to exploit the ivory.



Another can take us northwest, which is duly founded, revealing more desert and a river.

All the new building has set back my research badly, but on balance I think that it is worthwhile for the removal of such a dangerous neighbour.

Turn 153 – Undead invasion from the south south-east. Two Warriors are mobilised from the Capital to deal with them.

Turn 155- Our warriors overcome the skeletons the next turn without losses. We get writing – the research path is now writing - trade - honour. Stirrups will follow.

To get Honour will take 29 turns at the current rate. Some careful tweaking may reduce this a bit – to this end, the first of the new cities will focus on the ivory trade to try to fund the coming war. As mentioned before, some careful switching of civics may also be in order.

Turn 158 – Orcs spring from where the Skeletons had previously been.

Turn 162 – Our lightbringer successfully sees off an Orc warband from the safety of a desert hill. Good job!

Turn 163 – Horseback Riding is finally researched. The capital also produces a settler, and I switch it to a stable there.

Timberling finalises the herbalist reducing unhealthiness to 1 and permitting me to start working the incense for a healthy 6G/turn. The coming war will place a big burden on the economy and every bit of cash in advance will be needed – until of course it becomes self-financing through plunder. An evil grin would be in order at this stage, if of course the Malakim were not committed to the course of goodness and light etc. etc.

Turn 166 – Sandalphon converts to Runes of Kilmorph. I found a new city, Froikh, where the hunter had been, to take advantage of plentiful ivory in the nearby area.

Turn 167 – The Sheaim offer open borders again. Given the tiny possibility this will give a better trade route I say yes. Actually, time to check on trade…each of my cities now except Froikh is making +1 coins / turn through trade. All of them are trading with the capital except Golden Leane itself…which is trading only with Timberling. Does anyone have a good idea of how trade works?

Our plucky hunter has finished the first Ivory camp and starts work on the second. +1 happiness throughout the Kingdom, very nice! This will permit Golden Leane to grow to size 7.

Also in the news, Barnaxus is dismantled somewhere –bad luck Luchuirp! – and the mad ravings of the Octopus Overlords are heard somewhere in the wild yonder.

Turn 168 – The Stable is finished in my capital. Time to get working on them horsemen! In other news, our bold warriors see off the Orcish horde.

Turn 170 – Alexis and Kandros Fir both wardec Einon Logos. Poor peaceable guy…

Turn 171 – I am informed that a bad wedding has damaged relations (-1) with Alexis and her bloodsuckers. The groom apparently backed out of the feast on the wedding day. I can’t blame him for not fancying being the main course – this was the inspiration for the flavour post just before this one.

Turn 172 – Einon Logos has cast sanctuary! The effect of this is that all enemies will be cast out of his borders for a while. Also, Luchuirp has cast gifts of Nantosuelta – perhaps with a view to getting Barnaxus up and running again?

Turn 172 – The Hippus turn up and demand Philosophy. They get short shrift. Appropriately enough, this coincides with the building of my first unit of horsemen – and spurs me to think about what civics will work for a war. I decide to switch to City States, Apprenticeship and Protect the Meek (for the extra healthiness, reduced running costs for distance and maintenance, and additional xp for new units as I’m about to start the military buildup) I keep ‘religion’ not ‘nationhood’ despite the fact that nationhood would offset the -20% culture/city as I’m still intending to found Empyrean and will want the extra happiness.

Turn 173 – A turn of mourning. First, Sandalphon demands Philosophy. I thought tech trading was disabled??? I say no. Second, a settler founds Bryn in the southern peninsular. Our warriors do a pisspoor job of fighting an Orc invasion and one is killed. Worst of all, Alexis casts River of Blood. Every city -2 pop. AAARGH.

Turn 175. We finish researching Trade. This brings the Malakim to a +5 financial surplus, up from +2 before the tech was researched. I make use of the additional cash to raise the research slider by 10 percentage points, which makes it 19 not 21 turns to Honour – probably fewer as my cities regrow. Bad news: the orcs defeat the remainder of the warrior force sent for them. It’s time to send in the Zebras – no pic unfortunately but can I commend the art team for the awesome sabre-flashing zebra rider model that is a Malakim horsemen? The cavalry make short work of the depleted orcish force before it can wreak any damage. More bad news: Alexis’s new settlement on my border has been boosted by her blood feast and is now size 3. We need that army NOW.

Turn 178 – Einon Logos asks me to join him on a war against the Calabim. Problem is, I don’t have an army to help him yet. On the other hand, I can probably defend my borders for a while, and the relationship bonus will help in the future…and this is a fantasy world, dammit, and where would the soldiers of light be if they turned down an emissary from the peaceful nation of warrior-monks? No, it’s WAR. We also trade education and horseback riding for cartography, crafting and fishing, and hunting and philosophy for masonry and mining – that will open up the quarries and gold mines for development, which is all good (apart from disabled tech trading not working). Less good is that Sandalphon of the Sidar has dogpiled poor old Einon, so saving the monks may not be easy. I’ll try diplomacy but I’m not holding out too much of a hope for the monks at this point.

Trun 179 – The Hippus ask us to cancel our deals with the Elohim. What has Einon Logos been doing! He’s supposed to be the peaceable one isn’t he? But everyone hates him.

Faeryl Viconia’s just done the same although I can’t really see the point seeing as she’s to my north and he’s off to the south somewhere.

Turn 180 – And now Kandros Fir’s at it, asking us to cancel dealings with the Elohim. Are they smuggling drugs or something? I knew those monks were looking a bit too happy in their herbaria. Never mind, too late to back down.

There’s also a major invasion of humanoids – orcs and goblins – over the mountains in the southwest. Our fearless warriors go out to do battle.

Tiurn 181 – Faeryl Viconia wants – Surprise! – me to cancel dealings with the Elohim.

Tiurn 183…and we see Alexis’s army. Five bloodpets ,all at least Str 2, one of str 5, and two scouts each with flanking 1. I’ll try to meet them in the desert with my horsemen and deal with them there. But by turn 184 they’re out of sight again.

Trun 187 – predictably, Sandalphon wants me in his war against the Elohim. Not happening, buddy. Oh, and the bloodpet army is back. I hope it’s not cleverly moving up through the woods. That could be inconvenient.

189 – Victory! Our horseman army catches the Calabim main force in the desert just southwest of the forest and kills their strongest (+5 str) defender plus two others. First blood in the war goes to us! The other new horseman clears a path to the Northwest, as I’ve not really developed that area yet.

190. Our horseman army destroys the remnants of the Calabim main force and prepares to engage the remainder.

191. Baldherham builds a warrior. To make these guys a mobile reserve I give them the Mobility promotion, which grants +1 movement. This will let me get them to the front lines quickly and, if necessary, do a bit of raiding.

Turn 193 – The Svartalfar girl wants me to wardec the Elohim. She’s mad! Not a hope.

Treasonous literature in the capital! The streets are in uproar. But I can’t believe that our people would betray us. No, ignore this.

And finally…Rhoanna has wardecc’d Einon Logos and someone has cast Warcry.

194 – We get Honour, and Empyrean is founded in Baldheram.

This means two things: One, I can pull the restraints off city growth a bit now; and two, Empyrean Guard can be phased in to replace our warriors. Much rejoicing!

Our cavalry dispatches a wandering +2 STR warrior that was heading toward the peninsular city.

Belerian founded on a hill in the Northwest.

195. The Ljosalfar turn up. We trade them horseback riding and philosophy for Bronze Working, and way of the wise and writing for warfare. I take advantage of this to switch to military state and overcouncil – it’s annoying to lose two turns to anarchy in quick succession but better to take your medicine all in one go I think.

I also get a new change of traits via adaptivity. After some thought it comes down to expansive (win through production), financial or raiders. I like raiders and it first the desert warfare theme well, so raiders it is.

Turn - 199 A Calabim force besieges Timberling. Our horsemen bring them down to 2 units without any actually being killed, but damage to all horsemen is severe.

200- It is enough, though, to make them retreat to the hills.

Ljosalfar want open borders? I give them open borders.

204 – The boot is on the other foot now. A small exploratory force crosses the river into Nubia, destroying the disgusting villages and their blood economies.

208 – We prepare to invade. It’s going to be tougher now though, as the Calabim now have a source of copper and are using bronze weapons. We’ll see where it goes from here.

Apologies for the lack of pics this time: it's been a disorganised few weeks with much interruption from work. With luck, normal service will be resumed soon (tm).