How do the elves play in this? Are the significantly different than dwarves?
As different as I could make them.
To play them you have to find a suitably large tree in order to place workshops and a wood grower on. You have take some wood with you (this is essential) which you can convert into elfwood at the wood grower if you are making something you want to sell to the other elves. The workshop should be high up in the tree and make some inside squares on the tree beneath, which you can use to place beds and tables for bedding or dining purposes. The key thing to produce initially is statues, by placing wooden statues on the higher levels of the trees you can make extra inside spaces on top of the ones already there.
The main challenge of playing elves is the inside spaces, you treasure these a lot. As the game progresses however, the initial embark trees get bigger causing them to produce some inside spaces naturally, on top of the ones you unnaturally create using workshops+statues. This is of course very much welcomed as your elf immigrants start to turn up in a swarm, requiring more and more beds/tables. Oh and another element of playing elves, take fruit with you and turn them into wine at your still tree; this not only makes you elves happy (they aren't so different from dwarves
) but also gives you are ready means to make extra wood.
