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[KenboCalrissian]

My game paused and jumped to a location out in the middle of nowhere.  There was no announcement explaining why the game needed to alert me of this.  Looking closely, the only thing I saw was a little red cardinal flitting about.

The only thing I could think of it being was an ambush that hadn't appeared, so I sent some military dwarves to investigate.  My suspicions were confirmed: Elves were lying in wait at the location where I spotted the bird.

The irony of this is that the elves were betrayed by a fellow animal.

[Footkerchief]

Are you using any mods?  It's a known oddity that wild animals will reveal ambushes, but I don't think it had been reported with creatures that are usually vermin-sized (e.g. cardinals).

[smjjames]

I use the Mayday graphics mod and I've had wild animals reveal ambushes and thieves before (not sure about thieves though). It generally only happens where there is limited space to move around. At least with goblin ambushes anyway.

It doesn't happen often and is not a reliable method of ambush detection anyway.

[KenboCalrissian]

I'm using the Dystopian Rhetoric graphics pack, and the cat mouth mod.  Other than that, it's vanilla.

I've had this happen before with wild animals that I didn't own, but in each of those cases it actually reveals the ambush party and posts an announcement.  I just want to re-stress that, in this case, the game paused and moved the camera to a totally remote part of the map for no obvious reason.  The only things present here were trees and a cardinal.  The ambush was not revealed, nor was an announcement posted, until one of my military dwarves actually encountered the group in the same spot where the cardinal was sighted when the game had paused itself.

[Eagle]

Thats what happens when some civs send sieges. The map zooms to the place where they entered, trying to alert you that "a vile force of darkness has arrived", but the enemies are hidden. Cardinal had nothing to do with it. Useful for detecting sieges though.

[smjjames]

Thats what happens when some civs send sieges. The map zooms to the place where they entered, trying to alert you that "a vile force of darkness has arrived", but the enemies are hidden. Cardinal had nothing to do with it. Useful for detecting sieges though.

Hmm, that's entirely possible since in the wiki, it says Elven sieges start out in ambush mode. So, it could have just been coincidence that the cardinal was there at that moment.

Since I haven't gone into war with the elves, I don't actually know from personal experience.

[KenboCalrissian]

My first time with elves too, so... I guess this is answered then.  Thanks!