Gnome NES

[appleciders]

Foolish, you'll need to assign some gnomes to research those sand axes. For the moment, those gnomes will all have to use twig lances.

Anyway, update started!

[appleciders]

First Update:

The King of the Trash Gnomes has gained great support amongst his people for his agressive land grab, extending his domains far to the west towards an important anthill. The search party would have gone much further, possibly even reaching the anthill, if it had not been for a lizard, which attacked the scout party in the bushes, killing several gnomes and scattering the rest.

Many Trash Gnomes began shoring up the supports that hold up the underground city's constantly failing ceilings. This will help to prevent fatalities from the daily addition of food scraps directly above the residents' heads.

A raid from the Barbecue Gnomes was beaten off, but at high cost to the Trash gnomes. For more detail, read the Barbecue Gnomes section.

26 gnomes were killed by lizard and Barbecue Gnome attacks and collapsing roofs, while 59 gnomes were born, for a net gain of 33 gnomes.

The Bush Gnomes enjoyed a period of relative peace, with minimal contact with other gnomes. Large search parties went roving widely in search of food sources, and were attacked by assorted insects. The parties might have met with disaster had it not been for the loyal twig gnomes and ants that faithfully guarded the parties.

An envoy from the Clay Gnomes was exuberantly welcomed, and many speeches were made extolling friendship as the salvation of all gnomekind. A gift of one tame ant was made to the Clay Gnomes as a gesture of friendship. This could be easily afforded, as a concentrated effort captured 22 ants, while only three died in service of the colony. Similarly, only 6 gnomes died, while 24 were born, for a gain of 18 gnomes.

The Clay Gnome King has gained much respect amongst his people for his conservative yet effective orders. With very few gnomes venturing outside the colony's domains, losses were extremely low. The colony's tunnels have been significantly extended, and a granary has been constructed. The granary, while indispensible to a larger gnome colony, is not nessecary in a city of this size. Still and all, it will surely prove useful as gnomes prosper.

A surprise nighttime assult from the Trash gnomes met with fierce resistance from the loyal twig gnomes. With nearly all of the colony inside their city, the attackers were forced to try to fight through the tunnels, where they were at a great disadvantage. The attack was successfully repulsed.

24 gnomes were born, while only eight died from attack and cave-ins, for a net gain of 16 gnomes, and one ant as a gift.

The Barbecue gnomes revealed themselves as an agressive tribe, raiding the Clay Gnomes, the Twin Lake Gnomes, and the Trash Gnomes. The Clay Gnomes successfully repulsed the Trash Gnome attack, but the Twin Lake Gnomes were not quite so lucky.

The Barbecue Gnome raiders came down like wolves on the fold, killing and capturing several Twin Lake gnomes and stealing food. The defenders rallied, and repelled the raiders, but with moderate losses. Emboldened by their success, the Barbecue Gnomes quickly moved northward to the Trash Gnomes. This proved to be a mistake, as the weakened and tired forces were not in good enough shape to defeat the numerically superior enemy.

The Barbecue Gnomes have also begun designing a twig spear that can be thrown, but too few gnomes were assigned to finish the project this turn. 32 gnomes died in attacks, while only 29 were born. 6 captured Twin Lake gnomes usable as slave labor brings the net gain to 3 gnomes.

Other than Barbecue Gnome attacks, the Twin Lake Gnomes are faring very well. The military barracks is nearly complete, only requiring the attentions of a few gnomes next turn. It's already complete enough to give a one-turn experience bonus to all gnomes in the Twin Lake Army, and serve as a bastion of defense against assults. Ranged weapons would probably help this structure even more...

The watchtower and fortress is the main reason the Twin Lake gnomes got off so lightly; even unfinished, it proved to be a formidible obstacle to the Barbecue Gnomes. The Twin Lake army also had prototype superior spears that the barracks produced, which turned out to work very well.

The ant-watching group... uh... watched ants. They report that the ants are ripe for capture, and have ideas as to how to most efficently capture the ants. The fishergnomes had great success, but their success was canceled out by the losses due to Barbecue Gnomes. 29 gnomes were born, while 11 died, for a gain of 18 gnomes.

The Wall Gnomes had rather an uneventful time, spending their time breeding and sending out small forage parties to the flowers to the south to catch insects feeding on the flowers. More significantly, they've developed a sort of cord from the bark of their bush. This cord can be braided into rope, which allows a myriad of new possibilities. Only 5 deaths and 26 births gives a gain of 21 gnomes.

The POWARS, residing in the oak trees in the south-east corner of the yard, had a fairly good turn. Their bee-capturing force took 8 bees, which have been trained to carry a rider and cargo, and can even sting on command, although this will kill the bee. The fence-and-bridge-building commitee was woefully understaffed, but worked hard nonetheless, and made significant progress, making the tree safer and easier to move around in. 9 gnomes died in falls relating to bridges (or lack thereof) and bee stings, while a shocking 48 gnomes were born, for a gain of 41 gnomes.

[appleciders]

OOC: Note the new formula for gnome birth rate. Also, the parenthetical number following a military group refers to turns of service; the higher the number, the better the gnomes.

[appleciders]

Bush Gnomes to Clay Gnomes:

Greetings, friend! How is that ant we gave you working out? You know, we have many ants, but we could use a better source of food. If you gave us some food, we could send you as many as 3 ants per turn. Are you interested.

[Gamecube64]

I have a question, does my territory extend into the bush?

[appleciders]

Yes. That applies to everyone else's territory that includes bushes, too. I've been playing around, but I haven't been able to find a way to show territory under bushes that doesn't make the bush disappear, and doesn't look ugly.

[Gamecube64]

Gamecube the 65th took power after the death of his father and immediately ordered 36 new gnomes into the military using the superior spears.

15 gnomes finish up the barracks, which will have rocks from the pond shores at the top of the tower to act as defense against enemys who get too close, and it will also have plenty of throwing spears for ranged support. An extra tunnel will be made from the town square into the barracks, to serve as an escape route for citizens in case of an attack. The watchtower will have lookout shifts all day and all night.

20 gnomes are to work the bush and develope weaponry. Gamecube the 65th hopes they will produce a superior design for the stolen throwing spears as they have done with the twig spears. (Exactly how are they superior? Length, sharpness, weight?) On the subject of throwing spears, they will be the secondary weapon for our spear gnomes. Our glorious troops will carry several of them in a bundle on their back. In battle the new tactics are as follows: when aproaching or being aproached all gnomes throw throwing spears, then the front line will take out their spears and defend spear throwers behind them. Once they run out of throwing spears they will switch places with the frontlines. The gnomes in the melee will use their spears in a fashion that keeps the enemey at a distance to prevent friendly fire. If the Twin Lake's armies are known for anything, it will be their versatility.

15 elite fisher gnomes will fish, and try to design a very effective fishing net. Materials that they should try are grass, leaves, and twigs.

The remaining 32 gnomes will breed. The ants are left alone for now, since recent tragedies required alot of gnomes to be drafted or sent into R&D.

[appleciders]

Update Thursday night- get your orders in!

[bipolarbear]

25 gnomes are to be used for aquiring more bees.

15 Gnomes are to be employed to spread joy and glee through a Gnome interpretive version of The Persia Posse's Act. The Gnome leader Morgan Freeem'an will take the place of the Persian Leader morgan Freeman in the line up.

25 gnomes will work tirelessly for their fellow P.O.W.A.R.S. to find better nutritionally balanced forms of food.

10 gnomes will sweat and toil for the significant reward of fortfying the tree so that it is much harder for the invading forces of other gnomes, or hteir spies to infiltrate our uninfiltratable fortress. This may or may not (but most likely may) include the construction of walls with parapets for aroows and spear related projectiles, and larger parapets with honey boiling vats placed in these so that boiling hot honey may scald, and petrify any attacking forces.

[foolish_icarus]

Claykin folk culture has long ascribed the origins of Clay kind as peasant farmers and herder folk on the vast plains far to the east, far off even beyond the high pillars and great torrential rains. Oral legends tell of the cataclysmic destruction that drove their ancestors out of the plains and off to the cool shadows under Hoblezzednieg, “Our Bright Mountain.” Another account tells of the famine that devastated that First City and of the prince who led his society out to find a new home, forged an alliance with the hostile warrior nomads by his bravery, strength, and intelligence, and of the prince’s son who forged the two gnome kinds into one society and completed the exodus, founding the current Clay great capital, the city of Caivgridde, “Shadowed earth”, whose walled dwellings are prosperous, raised gardens are fruitful, and tunnels delve deep and soundly.
We are putting these semi-mythical accounts and others like them by combining them into literary material, epic accounts to be recited by bards for the purpose both of creating a sense of pride and loyalty to the state and teaching young gnomes better memory, language skills, and good upstanding values.
This turn 10 gnomes will begin standardizing and composing such tales, and an additional 5 will be permanently assigned to tell them to the public, marking the creation and first agents of the gNomenKlatureVarietyDepartment, or NKVD.

19 gnomes will work on developing a form of pebble, axe, a more easily wielded and versatile weapon, that can be used to strike devastating blows (larger version) or be thrown as a short range but dangerous ranged weapon (smaller specially balanced version). The axes will be made from twigs and very small rocks or large sand grains, bound together with grass or plant fibers.

28 gnomes will begin work on a path to our friends the bush gnomes to the east, better facilitating trade (we agree to the food for ants trade, when we have excess food supplies we will exchange some of them for a number of ants. We prefer, for the time being, docile safe ants to use as worker ants in our tunneling and scavenging efforts.) The path will be inconspicuous, under cover, but the path itself well cleared so that it will be harder for predators to sneak up, and well packed so that it is more resistant to damage such as from rain, and will, when completed, have a series of hollow pit/mound bunkers, several with full twig raised guard towers and attack platforms, to serve for defense.

30 more spear gnomes trained, 5 to add to reinforcements of the main city, and 25 to protect the workers on the path.

The rest (14), lusty youth that they are, breed.

[appleciders]

Update started!

[appleciders]

Second Update:

The great King of the Trash Gnomes has gained considerable support among his people this turn, with his considerable territorial gains, including an anthill, and assisting in the avenging attack against the vile Barbecue gnomes. Raising a sizeable force for the attack, the Trash gnomes made good use of their newly acquired technology to make improved spears. More details in the Barbecue Gnome section.

After capturing the anthill to the west, the Trash Gnomes quickly halted their advance and began to capture ants. Unfortunately, they have not had sufficent time to capture more than a paltry few ants. Still, the Trash Gnome community looks forward to the acquisition of many more ant laborers and the projected boost in productivity. A continuation of the city-expansion and improvement project has also met with mild success.

The Trash gnomes lost 17 twig gnomes in the attack against the Barbecue Gnomes, and 4 in the process of capturing ants. 46 gnomes were born, for a net gain of 29 gnomes. Six ants were captured.


The Bush Gnomes again enjoyed a peaceful time, focusing their most of their efforts on breeding and capturing ants. Trade with the Clay Gnomes has expanded their food supply, and the useful ant-laborers have made work around the colony much more efficient. Upon hearing of the road to be built to their colony by the Clay Gnomes, the Bush Gnomes, in a wave of gratitude, began to build a road towards the Clay Gnomes.

44 gnomes were born, while only 16 died, for a gain of 28. 21 ants were captured, with losses of only four, plus three sent to the Clay Gnomes, for a gain of 14.


The Clay Gnomes again had a productive turn, working on several projects. The new pebble axe was heralded as a great success, and is expected to provide great advantages to the massively expanded Clay Gnome army, especially while fighting in close quarters, like their tunnels. Unfortunately, the smaller throwing axe has not yet been perfected, although much theoretical research has been done.

The gnomes working on the new road to the Bush Gnomes met a pleasant suprise- the grateful Bush Gnomes had kindly built a road to the edge of their territory, to meet in the middle! A plaque, commemorating the historic event, was placed at the site where the two roads met.

The new NKVD has begun its important work of recording the history and culture of the Clay Gnomes, improving the happiness of the whole colony. However, that effect was lessened by the massive amounts of gnomes that have been inducted into the military. On the whole, though, gnomes agree that life in the colony has generally improved.

Only 14 new gnomes were born, while six were killed by predators on the path, including one new Twig Gnome. Three new ants arrived from the Bush Gnomes.


The Barbecue Gnomes, foreseeing retaliation from their victims of last turn, prepared for an onslaught. Many new warriors were drafted into the army, and equipped with the new throwing spears. The Barbecue gnomes did little else, allowing many gnomes to breed.

Barbecue Gnome scouts reported the approach of many warriors from the north and the west. The western warriors, in particular, seemed to be very well equipped and superbly trained. As the armies marched closer, the Barbecue gnomes took up defensive positions and waited for the enemy to approach.

The Twin Lake Gnomes used effective new tactics combined with simple, straight-forward strategics. Their allies, the Trash Gnomes, were poorly organized but fought with great passion. The effect was devastating to the Barbecue Gnomes, who slowly but surely gave ground before the mighty warriors. A small detachment of Trash Gnome warriors snuck around behind the Barbecue Gnome city, and began to terrorize the inhabitants. Very little damage was done to the city, but four of the six Twin Lake captives were located and rescued.

Just as the battle seemed lost for the Barbecue Gnomes, a low rumbling and a high-pitched whirring was heard coming from the south. A giant lawnmower approached the battlefield, terrifying every gnome in sight. Every gnome on the field routed, running back to their respective colonies. The Barbecue Gnomes fled back to their city and hid, where they began taking account of their losses.

The Barbecue Gnomes lost 6 captives and 39 other gnomes in battle. Still, 60 gnomes were born, for a gain of 15 gnomes.


The Twin Lake Gnomes focused much of their effort on their military this turn. Much confusion resulted from their ruler's command to improve the stolen throwing spears, as no stolen throwing spears existed. However, the gnomes dutifully developed a throwing spear, and equipped the military with their product.

The attack against the Barbecue Gnomes was well-prepared, and met with relative success (read about it above). After their retreat from the lawnmower, the Twin Lake Gnomes regrouped at their capital. As many warriors grumbled about their failure to rescue their comrades, a small group of Trash Gnomes showed up outside the barracks, escorting the four rescued Twin Lake Gnomes. There was much rejoicing at the arrival of the captives.

The barracks and watchtower were completed, making a formidable defense system for the colony.

The fishergnomes tried long and hard to develop an effective net, but never succeded. Their materials were less than ideal, and too few were assigned. Still, they caught many tadpoles, and watched longingly as larger fish swam by.

39 gnomes were born, and four captives returned, while 21 died, for a gain of 22 gnomes.


The Wall Gnomes continued their expansion southward, towards the flowers which hold promise of much food. After experimenting with their new rope, a new weapon was developed: a pebble tied to a short stick, which could be wielded to devastating effect by a dextrous gnome. 15 new Flail Gnomes were trained, and used to guard the foraging parties. Their new weapons proved effective against wandering insects that might see gnomes as food.

The new rope was also useful to raise gnomes up and down from tall flowers, and to lower food safely to the ground from the heights.

Losses were minimal, as the Wall Gnomes enjoyed good luck. Only nine gnomes were killed, while 36 were born.


The POWARS expanded their influence all the way through their tree, bringing the beehive within their borders. A concentrated effort brought 14 new bees under the colony's control, where they were used en masse to bring entire acorns directly into the city center.

The committee on new food sources reported- honey! They managed to sneak honey out of the beehive, where it has begun to provide a new food source for the colony.

New defensive systems were built, including vats of heated honey, ready to dump on unsuspecting attackers. The gnomes who built this system now stand ready to defend the colony. These gnomes, hereafter referred to as "Sappers", represent an entirely new, highly technical kind of soldier.

The Persia Posse's act was greeted with wild entusiasm, although no one in the colony was quite sure what it all meant. Still and all, the colony's general happiness has greatly improved.

A praying mantis has begun stalking the gnomish tree, eating the occasional gnome. Unfortunately, it never walked under a vat of honey, where it could be trapped and easily killed. A more versitile military might be a good idea.

65 gnomes were born, while only 15 died, for a gain of 50 gnomes. The colony now owns 21 bees, after an unfortunate mishap where a bee stung a gnome, killing both.

[foolish_icarus]

Make Contact with the Trash Gnomes.

Greetings, fellow gnome-kind. We offer a treaty of lasting peace and to trade ants for food supplies.


to Wall Gnomes :

We can probably provide you with more foodstuffs in exchange for more ants.

[bipolarbear]

80 gnomes spent on improving the military in every category

1 gnome to be spent entertaining the people

25 gnomes will be deployed on a mission to further safeguard the city against falling or invasion of ants, gnomes, humans (if that is possible, or anything else that is concievable.

25 gnomes to remind people (gnomes) in the POWARS hopw totally awesome it is to be a POWAR, and how awesome and even approaching godlike their emperors may be.

[appleciders]

I'll update this weekend if I get orders from everyone. I'll update Sunday even if I don't. Micha, Lord Nuclear, or anyone else who wants to join, it's never too late!