Abandoned villages don’t defend themselves. And there are no Fire Elementals inIllyriad. Until this morning, these were undisputed facts.
So, imagine how surprised a new player was to get a combat report stating that, while pillaging an abandoned village, her raiders had just killed this….
There have been strange things afoot in Illyriad for a few days now. I mentioned before the Heart of Corruption (which is growing larger each day, by the way). Intriguing structures have cropped up on the Illyriad map. And this morning we have the first sighting of a Fire Elemental.
After ogling the Elemental’s stats (and wondering how I can get some of them to defend my cities!), and applauding the Orcs who took down this beast (congratulations to Flaggelumdei, of the Black Skull Horde), this brings us to the point:
Illyriad is turning into very much more than a mathematical strategy game. Obviously it is a stats-based strategy game, no question. But on top of that we are getting more and more exploration, investigation and surprise. Hurrah! Now, gleefully, I am off to chase down rumors of a steam-powered Brewery…
[Update: since the first encounter with an Elemental, the GMs have launched a new Tournament – which features… Elementals. Meanwhile, further rumor-gathering – thanks to Manannan, Majono and Shamarra – suggests that each elemental is strongest in defense (500) against a certain unit type: Fire vs cavalry; Air vs bows; Earth vs spears; Water vs swords.]
The Wisdom of Kurdruk 