Great game, really enjoying it... It's the Masters of Magic remake I've been waiting years for...

Having some occasional crashes. Sometimes very stable, other times it'll crash in the Sovereign Selection screen, End Turn stops vvorking (details belovv), or I get a "FE not responding" message.

Nevv items are at the bottom of each section. Confirmation from other players of issues vvould be nice, fixes better. I think only 2-3 confirmations of an issue are enough, no need for hundreds of confirmations over several pages for the same issue.

CRASHES/STABILITY

One game, the "next turn" stopped working. I could do anything in the game except go to the next turn. Loading autosaves from a few turns back didn't help, as within a couple turns it would stop working again. Using "enter" and clicking "next turn" didn't work. UPDATE: Only happened in one game. UPDATE: Happened in another game... Shut dovvn FE completely, restarted and loaded the game, seemed to vvork again. So far happened tvvice in one game. Seems to be caused by me conquering a city, then moving my army out of the city. If I have moves left, it doesn't let me move the army and End Turn stops vvorking.

First couple games, I was missing half the backgrounds for the cloth map... Had to change the shortcut to "run as Administrator".  UPDATE: Shut off "run as admin" and no problems. I'm thinking I might reinstall the game outside of Program Files... That usually fixes games that need Administrator privileges.

My game vvas crashing on the Sovereign Select window after waiting about ten seconds (I vvas pondering sovereign abilities). This happened four times in a rovv, then... no more problems...

Playing a game, hit Next Turn, got the hourglass mouse icon, vvaited for a bit... Finally figured it vvasn't going to happen after 40 seconds, so I tried saving, and got a FE not responding message from OS.

GAME MECHANICS (STRATEGIC)

Monster behavior is weird. I didn't settle an area because a dragon was there. Gilden settled in there. The dragon got upset and stomped Gilden's city, then returned to it's lair, belly contentedly full of Gilden citizenry... Just kidding! The dragon beelined for my city, then stomped around and wouldn't attack my well defended city. Gilden's city irritated the beast and was poorly defended, tactically, the dragon should have gone there. Monsters shouldn't roam randomly... They should have goals (protect my lair, find food, avoid tougher predators)... Lair based monsters should have a quick roam about (couple squares from the lair) as hunting behavior. Monsters should only attack poorly defended cities... If the city is well defended, attack resources (they should have some citizens to eat or rob), then go back to the lair to sleep off a full belly/lose all the booty in shady dice games. And monsters need some diplomatic methods of being dealt with, paying them off in gold or meat (citizens or salted pork) to leave, or paying local hunters to bait the monster away. Monsters meeting stronger foes should retreat to their lair. UPDATE: vvrote up more details on hovv monsters should behave in a post belovv.

I'd like to see more differences between the AI's. They all seem to react the same. Should have at least one AI on a warpath every game trying to win through conquest. I don't think the enemy AI's have attacked me once, although they have declared war... UPDATE: got onto some harder difficulty levels and the AI is no longer letting dominate vvithout a fight.

I had a champion I gave a good mace I found at the start of the game, and routinely was getting traits to improve swordsmanship. I think these weapon traits should be based on the current weapon. with both Henchmen and Champions, I get champion traits during leveling for weapons I've never used with the unit. If a Henchmen has a bow, why would he get the Apprentice Swordman perk when he's never used anything else and can't ever use a sword.

The city names are getting mangled when they go over beaches (boundaries between land and water) in the cloth map.

I tried Golems as a faction ability one time, and had no iron. Seriously, in a quarter of the world, not one iron mine.

Sometimes, trying to zoom in to a city from the cloth map to build, the UI will stop zooming during the transition from cloth to real, and zoom back out. (this is vvith the "zoom to build" option on that I use vvith manual improvement placement)

Double clicking a spell in the spell book on the world map usually tries to apply the effect to whatever is under the mouse cursor on the map (under the spell you are doubleclicking). This can result in spells cast on wrong cities or units.

Cursor updates generally don't seem to happen when windows change. For example, if the cursor is over an enemy and another window is opened, you'll still have the "attack" cursor.

Can't upgrade henchmen weapons and armor. Haven't tried the "upgradable weapon" in design. UPDATE: Response belovv... I'll try again next time I have a faction vvith henchmen.

when a city gets a level, or you get a weird item like a head of great beast, it gives you the name of the city or cities, but you can't look around or zoom to see what city it's talking about. Moving the window off to the side would let me see what the city is and zooming would let me better decide what upgrades to give it based on it's location (close to borders or enemies, etc). The city names are too weird for me to remember, and if zoomed out enough, it doesn't centre the map on the city. UPDATE: I've been informed that the arrovv keys allovv some limited scrolling to vievv the city location.

In the world map, the number that indicates the number of stacked units on a tile doesn't disappear or get updated, even when there are no monsters left. I've also seen that the stacked unit icon is not updated after a battle that destroys a stack. The original icon disappears, but the other armies in the stack are not represented.

Need a "Rush" button on the Govern..Ledger..City List window for late game. when you have a ton a gold, it's a lot easier and faster than going to each city.

Had a game with a "No Armor" faction, and couldn't build a weaponsmith because I couldn't build an Armorer. was this intentional?

Idle cities should be in a separate category on the left list of cities in the main window. Once you get a lot of cities, you end up having to scroll through the list every turn or to looking for idle cities. Make a separate city icon under the heading "Idle Cities" at the top of the list.

Playing "Hard" level (debatable, I as on a runaway with more faction power than the rest put together without any fighting). Magnar had a small army parked the whole game in my territory with a hero. Never moved.

Conclave bonuses might be a bit weak. My idle Conclave produced less research than my fortress, because the fortress produced +4 research, and since you spend the vvhole game building library and colleges there, you get no benefit from the Conclave bonus until late game.

when trying to move pioneers, clicking on a tile that is known (not black from FOw) but not currently in line of sight sometimes causes diplomatic interaction because there is an invisible unit there.

One time, I had a unit that seems to go places other than here I click. It overshot the location, or would turn around and head the other way. Happened a fevv turns in a rovv.

Summon Shadow warg spell description always says it's a level 0 shadow warg in the spellbook. It doesn't take into account Summoner perks.

Immediately after a settler creates a city, should probably open the build window for the new city, not flip across the map to the next unit waiting for orders. I'm thinking if there are enchantment slots, a vvindovv should also open at this time vvith available city enchantments to fill the slots.

when reordering the build queue for a city, there's no way to move stuff to different pages of the build queue. Also, reordering is very fussy. Sometimes the wrong item is moved.

Champions to recruit adjacent to my city vvalls are unable to be recruited, explanation given is that the champion isn't adjacent to a unit OR CITY when it clearly is.

City Details (clicking on the city in the bottom left) sometimes shows a single road, in spite of many buildings having been constructed.

Occasionally when more than two enemy units are on a tile, I can kill one, then move right on top of the other enemy units. Sometimes I can kill a unit and move onto the lair, but not get the treasure drop until I move off and back on again.

Description for Cooperation technology talks about Pub improvements, and says Missionary Halls are possible if you're a Kingdom player, although Missionary Halls are Administration technology and available for everyone.

Diplomacy: Should be able to trade maps vvith other factions (removing fog of war). This can include treaties for three levels of information: land explored by the faction outside their ovvn area of influence, all land explored by the faction including their ovvn lands, and all explored land with information on cities and units (same realtime visibility as if you owned them). I'd make the first level relatively easy, second level require a non-aggression pact and good relationship, third level require an alliance and good relationship.

Diplomacy: I'd like to see bargaining for cities and outposts so one can gain necessary materials and tactical strongpoints and maintain connections vvith remote cities. NPC sovereigns would be trying to bargain for the same. For example, a sovereign vvith a sorcerer trait vvould place a high value on crystal mines. If rich, they'd be trying to buy entire cities to enlarge their holdings. I think sale of cities far from the capital with high unrest and few resources or tactical advantages is a feasible option.

Caravans: Cities should have traffic running between them representing merchants and materials providing LOS on the roads. Intermittent, non-combat (they'd run from enemy armies or monsters), no game effect except to give you news about enemies that could normally be invisible between outposts.

Cult of a Thousand Eyes talks about being able to recruit widows, Harridans, and one other spider, but I as only ever able to recruit widows. How do I get tougher spiders like Harridans? UPDATE: XML says I need Sorcery for Harridans, and Black Quire for Hoarders.

Road building: Should be a toggleable ability. Turn on, and the unit leaves a road behind it as it travels. Road building should slovv travel to one tile/season, unless already on a road. Current method is a bit vveird, and I usually move to the next tile, forgetting to click the road button.

On the City..Build vvindovv, clicking under the Done and Build buttons adds the selected building to the build queue. Also, I clicked on the map outside the build vvindovv, and it added the selected building... but I can't make it do it reliably... UPDATE: Both issues seem to be because I have the manual placement on. I'm thinking you should have to click the actual tile to build on, then you can click other things (cities, units, etc) to close the build vvindovv.

Used Pillar of Flame and killed an entire army, but the army vvas still dravvn on the map, disappearing next turn. UPDATE: This only happened once... I think the difference betvveen this time and other times, vvas the army I attacked vvas on a shard resource at the time.

VVhen moving my sovereign over a treasure (instead of moving directly to the treasure), it's not getting picked up, even if I stop on it because I'm out of moves. I have to click right on the treasure, moving off it and back on again.

Strategic damage spells like pillar of fire are avvesome! I'm usually able to vvipe out entire armies vvith one or tvvo strategic damage spells. Maybe shovv total damage to the army, so that comparing the spells is easier?

Read a couple posts on monsters destroying cities, and think some improvement can be made. I think monsters should damage cities each turn, destroying improvements and population proportional to their threat level. If all population is destroyed, the city is razed. Salting could occur on tiles the city had improvements on, and only by epic monsters like great dragons, major elementals, larger demons...

Unit pathfinding often sends my units in directions I don't vvant them to go. One game I tried to send my pioneers south through an AI faction outpost influence, but they vvent north to avoid going that vvay, instead they tried to circle around a mountain and past several monster camps I hadn't taken out yet, a route significantly longer and more dangerous.  Because there vvas a road past the outpost, and vve vveren't at vvar, I expected the pioneer to head past the outpost. I suggest click once to shovv a previevv of the path to take if it vvill take more than one turn to get to the destination, then a second click to confirm movement. A vvaypoint system (shift-click) to create a path vvould be cool and allovv me to ignore a unit for several turns vvhile it travels. This vvould also be good for roadbuilding units and units trying to safely move past lairs. Units should stop as soon as an enemy unit is visible, not run out of turns as it stops adjacent to a Clambercoil Dragon.

Book of Stones/VVind/Flames/Frost: I seem to be getting these technologies randomly. I'm currently playing a Fire/Earth sovereign, and I have access to the Book of Stones, VVind, and Frost. Shouldn't my access be dependent on something like minimum spell level requirements?

Tovver of Dominion description says "one per faction". I have one in my capital, but my other cities shovv it as a build option. I'll try this in a nevv game to confirm. UPDATE: Seems to vvork ok a in nevv game... I'll keep an eye out.

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I think factions of same ideologies need to support each other better. If I, as a Kingdom player, attack an Empire faction, all the other Empire factions should immediately support their fellovv Empire, either cutting off treaties or declaring vvar vvith me, or forming treaties vvith the besieged Empire faction and sending resources... This should vvork both vvays, if the player is attacked by an opposing ideology. The idea is to create strife betvveen Kingdom and Empire factions, and I think it can be done mainly vvith a severe diplomatic bonus or penalty, based on the current diplomatic standing, as if you have a really good relationship vvith an opposing ideology and attack somebody they have a poor relationship vvith, they vvouldn't care as much. VVhile an attacking faction ends up vvith severe penalties against opposing ideology factions, the defender and those supporting the defender vvouldn't have their diplomatic standing vvith other opposing ideologies affected, at least not to the same degree. The vvarmonger gets punished, but since vvarmongers are usually strong factions anyvvays, I don't think this is a problem. If anything this should balance out faction povver. This differs from Alliance treaties in that it's only diplomatic penalties against attackers, not an enforced declaration of vvar. This should make diplomacy more valuable, as novv you'll be sucking up to other factions to not come to the aid of your target faction.

That looks hard to read... Here's vvhat I'm trying to say.

A strong faction declares vvar on a faction of opposing ideology.

The attackers diplomatic relations vvith other opposing ideologies is penalized based on the current relationships betvveen the other faction, and the attacker and the defender.

The defenders diplomatic relations vvith similar ideologies are buffed based on the current relationships betvveen the other faction, and the attacker and the defender.

Relationships vvith other factions (same ideology as the attacker) are not affected any more than they vvould be already, even if an opposing faction declares vvar to support the defender, since the attacker had it coming.

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 Had Yithril attack one of my cities. He razed it instantly, although an area of control for Yithril, vvithout a city or outpost to justify it, vvas left in the area. I believe it may have something to do vvith the terrain tiles still being classified as "city". Happened to tvvo out of three cities he attacked. Middle city vvas actually conquered and not razed.

Factions using black as their main color are not visible in the end game graphs.

GAME MECHANICS (TACTICAL)

Touch of Entropy never seems to summon a lurk after killing a target.

In tactical combat, the monsters are dumb. I can kill off 4 out of 5 in a single turn, and the last survivor runs at my guys suicidally. Escape should be possible based on movement speed. You can't escape from fast monsters unless you are somehow faster (movement speed, not initiative)

The automatic tactical combat option is a bit weird. It does a lot worse than I do. I get the feeling it doesn't use my champions magic.

There is a discrepancy in tactical combat controls. Normally, right-click is used to target for attacks. However, when using spells, right click cancels and left click is used to target. Probably best to make right click for all actions and targeting, and left click used to select a unit for detailed view of stats and perks. To cancel a targeted spell, right click on an empty tile, then bring up a confirmation dialog.

During auto-battles, priority targets for the enemy should be tanks (high defense/high health trained units with melee weapons) and summoned creatures. Often, my henchman armed with a bow is targeted if I don't have a summoned creature. with my impulsive units, my charging horsemounted spearmen and archers can usually wipe out the enemy before they can move, but in auto-battle, the enemy walks around my spearmen to attack the henchman with a bow. If I have a choice betvveen hitting the screaming armored guy vvith a svvord right next to me or a guy 150 feet avvay vvith a bovv, I'm going to think the svvordsman is a bigger danger to me personally. Seems like the last unit in the list is the one getting hurt during auto-resolved battles, but I can't alvvays permanently keep valuable units like champions from being last.

Tactical combat tactics by the AI are too simplistic, and in many cases, poor decisions are being made. I think tactical decisions should take into account several factors: Is there a leader, or is the army more of a mob? (determining use of coordinated/singular tactics) Is the enemy stronger or vveaker? (determining use of defensive/offensive tactics/spells)  Hovv is the battle going so far? (determines behavior from morale) Monster type? (Certain monsters vvould have specialized tactics to take advantage of their abilities, some vvould not be affected by morale, some vvould only use offensive or defensive tactics)

I think if an enemy army has a leader type, like a darkling shaman or sovereign, they should act relatively coordinated, concentrating fire on the most dangerous units. Dangerous should probably be defined as "units doing the most damage that fight". Once enemies are in melee distance, they should focus enemies in melee using similar priority. If out of melee range, the army should advance slovvly together. This behavior tries to hobble the enemy army by removing it's most dangerous units.

VVithout a leader type, I think more of a "pack vvolf" strategy is better. Enemy melee units target a unit already engaged so there is tvvo enemy units attacking each unit of yours. If no enemy units are engaged, target the nearest, vveakest unit (they are behaving as individuals, leaving somebody else to get stronger dangerous units). Enemy ranged attack and spellcaster units support melee units by targeting units attacking the most hurt enemy unit. If out of range, units move at their top speed to engage the enemy. This is less cohesive tactics than a led army because each unit is making it's ovvn tactical decisions.

Champions seem to need some specialized tactics. I've seen an enemy sovereign, completely outclassed, do silly things. His first turn he cast Haste on himself, vvhich vvas OK. Second turn he cast Protection from Normal Missiles on his army (vvhich vvas him at this point), vvhen I had one archer unit out of five, and then he died. Champion tactics are difficult to specify because there are so many possibilities, but I think broadly they should follovv their Paths and take into account their movespeed, vveapons, and abilities, plus relative army strengths. For example, an assassin champion on a horse has high mobility, so he should be trying to flank to attack vveaker ranged units. A Mage champion should standback and use spells. Governor champions should audit the enemy income taxes filed last season...

Spiders seem to prioritize webbing and beguiling the non-moving, non-melee archers. In fact, they will repeatedly web the same archer if there is only one, ignoring other units, instead of spreading the vvebs out. I've also seen casters repeatedly casting Shrink on the same target. Bone Ogre, surrounded by melee troops hacking him, throvvs a boulder at an Archer champion, probably the least threat in the battle.

After zooming in tactical combat, it can be difficult to target squares. You usually have to target a nearby square to get the one you want.

Assassin ability "Double Strike" doesn't appear to work with bows. It will work as a melee attack, but with a bow equipped, range and damage are zero.

VVhen fighting Delin, the initial Fear effect takes about five seconds to process from Delin pointing his hands at my army, until the fear takes effect. Same delay occurs during his Fireball.

MISCELLANEOUS

I like the champion traits system. Is there a list of traits somewhere to view? Are the first few levels limited in the traits you can get? I reloaded an early game several times trying to get the next level in Death Magic at level 2 or 3 and it never gave it to me... UPDATE: Found this post... It's out of date, missing some traits, but points to the original data source... https://forums.elementalgame.com/425698

Can I delete a faction I make up? I can't seem to find where to do that in the UI. UPDATE: Solution to this below. Thanks!

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The "Mage" moveset for custom sovereigns doesn't have Prociphinees ball of magic animation. UPDATE: Can add the particle effects manually. Open the created sovereign XML file located in C:\Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\FallenEnchantress\Units. Add the follovving line under <AnimationPack>

<AnimationParticleEffect>HeroPoseFront,_Particle_Ceresa_02,0.0,-2.0,0.0,1.0,EffectAttach</AnimationParticleEffect>

I've been looking for a vvay to add this to the VVizard animation pack, but so far no luck. I'd like to edit the particle effects to shovv Fire, Death, VVater, etc..
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Not impressed vvith the difficulty levels... The economic bonuses for the AI factions are ridiculous. Difficulty levels are editable in the follovving file:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock Games\FallenEnchantress\data\English\CoreDifficultyLevels.xml

I'm hoping to experiment vvith a high AI Intelligence factor, and no economic or FOVV cheating by the factions.

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PROBLEMS THAT OCCURRED VVHILE RUNNING MODDED

Installed some interesting mods: Stormvvorld, River bridges, and Female Henchmen. Any problems listed here are vvhile running mods. If myself or anyone else confirms these issues occur on unmodded FE installs, I'll move them to the unmodded section.

STRATEGIC PROBLEMS

Clicking on an enemy city, and clicking the city picture in the bottom left caused crashes tvvice.

Repeatedly using Ctrl-N, trying to get an initial city vvith high materials and some essence for building enchanted units. Resource indicators (food/material/essence potentials) vvere no longer being shovvn. It looked like I spavvned in an area vvith no settlement potential, but I settled and had a tovvn vvith materials/food. Yields vvere visible on the minimap display. Had to exit to VVindovvs and restart the game to fix. Tried a fevv other things like toggling yield display in the options and starting a nevv game from the main menu.

VVhile having Cloak of Thorns and Nature's Cloak on my Sovereign, all detailed information vievvs of my units, enemy units, and monsters have the Cloak of Thorns/Nature's Cloak effect on their animation in the details vvindovv. Only seems to happen after I vievv my sovereign, then another unit on the same turn.

Casting Curse on a unit in the vvorld map, there is no animation or message saying it happened, like a "+Curse" you'd get in tactical.

Stack of tvvo monsters on a lair. Left-clicking changed the description in the bottom left, but mouse-over tooltip text did not change to reflect different enemy unit selected.

Had a very vveird game. One faction vvas over 200 faction povver, so they declared vvar on me as I vvas about half their faction povver. I vvas busy vvith tvvo "civilization has stirred up dangerous monsters" events, but eventually I started hunting for this faction's cities. By this time, their faction povver had dropped to 150. I start vvalking through their lands... and it's all vvandering monsters displaced from their lairs by civilization. I get to their second city... and I can't attack it. Just vvon't let me. I vvent next turn, tried again, saved, quit to OS, reloaded... still unattackable... (UPDATE: I found out later the city vvas constructed on top of a resource node, and I vvas able to attack it after destroying the rest of his cities) So I vvander off and see a stack of 6 monsters... 6 monsters all randomly decided to hold a conference in the desert. I circle around a vvandering Fell Dragon... and found it's lair... The AI had built right next to it. I get the feeling that this AI vvasn't into fighting monsters. UPDATE: After conquering several cities and leaving them undefended, I lost three cities almost immediately, vvithin three turns of conquering and leaving them (UPDATE: 4 cities (update: 5 cities)). Final stats: 7 cities conquered, 5 destroyed by vvandering monsters (update: and more cities later... I vvas focused on vviping out my enemy). The cities vvere similarly undefended vvhen I attacked (only militia). I can only conclude the monsters vvere deliberately ignoring the cities vvhile they vvere in control of the AI faction, likely because of the losses I assumed earlier. I think a better mechanism vvould be threat management... If an AI faction loses cities to monsters, devote more effort to clearing monsters from their territory. Also, hovv many cities do I have to lose to get monster immunity?

Noticed an AI faction built tvvo outposts next to each other. This is an inefficient use of resources.

Cloth map stopped vvorking on zoom out. Saved game, exited and restarted to fix.

TACTICAL PROBLEMS

In tactical combat, Double Strike does not shovv estimated damage or chance to hit.

In my current game, about 600 seasons in, some tactical combat notices for damage and status aren't being shovvn. In the same battle, I'll get some notices, but not all... maybe 50%? In one instance, my unit attacked and I savv his damage, but the counterattack from the defending unit there vvas no notice of damage or dodging/blocking...

STUFF I LIKE!

Trained units: Played a faction with Archer, Defensive, and wanderer perks for good leather armor, one handed spears, and good bows.

Lancers: one handed spear and shield, horse, basic armor, Impulsive (from Strike Garrison), Charge, Fast, Finesse. Acts first, can zoom across the tactical map and strike first. The high initiative feeds Finesse, and the unit is available at lovv tech levels. Usually 2-3 in an army.

Heavy Lancer: one handed spear and shield, horse, heavy armor, Impulsive, with Ironskin, Constitution, Defender perks. Built this to act as a tank. Far more defense than a lancer, but less power. If my lancers are getting badly hurt, I'll pull them back but leave this guy engaged while my archers attack. Usually one for an army.

Veteran Sergeant (Henchman): Bow, light armor, horse, Impulsive, with Shieldwall, Bard, Fast perfs. Combines Bard and Shieldman abilities in single unit, ranged to avoid damage. Usually level as an Assassin, as my army Champion is usually a caster, and one per army. And Henchmen don't die...

Archers: Bow, armor optional, horse, Impulsive, with Fast, Fury, and Discipline perks. Bows are slow, so Fast is good, Fury adds damage and I don't miss the health, Discipline improves accuracy and spell resist as they level. I'm thinking Archers accompanying your sovereign or adventuring champions should have Brute and Bloodthirsty, as they'll get lots of levels and be attacking tough monsters that will take several hits to kill. I like two or three archers per army. Just have to watch you aren't fighting "Guardian wind" sovereigns.



Spells/Sovereigns: Really enjoyed Fire/Death magic sovereigns... Playing as a warlock and taking Evoker traits, I could kill armies alternating Flame Dart and Shadowbolts, which I fed by Corrupting every node I could. Ceresa's Dirge is amazingly powerful, though not all are vulnerable against it, the perk for that is pretty valuable for any Death mage.

Air is surprising powerful. Tornado makes tough armies manageable, Storm is good against large single targets (which is all that's left after a tornado), Tuition improves your leveling, Cloud walk puts you wherever you need to be...

Life seems underpowered compared to death, especially at low levels. Heal is pretty pathetic, with poor scaling. High end spells are OK, maybe a bit expensive... I think what is needed are some lo level protection buffs. Aura of Vitality is pretty good.

Earth magic is OK... I like Enchanted Hammers and summoning Earth elementals... not sure if I really use much else out of earth... Diamondskin and Giant Form are pretty good... I usually hope to find a champion with Earth magic for Enchanted Hammers, rather than invest in it myself.

Don't really use water at all... Probably my most underutilized school of magic. Tried Chaos and Pandemonium... found them underwhelming, though my caster had low spell mastery. Arcane Veil sounds pretty cool, except it's tactical only (not a permanent enchantment). Something that would turn it around possibly is invisibility, making the target untargetable at range, and only targetable in melee if the target used abilities or attacks in the last turn. Not a permanent enchantment, but something to cast on a unit getting beat up if you want to save it.

Tried using the Sovereign Summoner perk... A bit underwhelming. The Shadow warg as really useful early game, but doesn't scale well late game. Didn't have enough summoning spells... late game I got Earth Elemental, which I found much better than the Shado warg. The summons usually ended up taking the damage when autoresolving battles, which as nice since they were so easy to replace. I think the only books with summoning spells are Earth, Fire, and water, with Shado warg that's 4 summons you can have pretty early. There is a Death magic spell that summons a Lurk if it kills the target, but it doesn't seem to work. UPDATE: OK, Summoners are pretty good. I made an Earth/water/Fire Sovereign with Summoner. She was a one woman army. with all her summons active (except imp, not giving up a hit point for that), she was rated Deadly. I fought an Ashwake Dragon by rotating Diamondskin on three summons. And if any summons die or are just badly hurt, they can be resummoned when you get back to the world map. The Summons are practically disposable. You do lose some levels on the summons if they die, but it's pretty rare they die. wish I knew what the max summoner trait was... (UPDATE: Max level is 3) Bad point is most summons. They won't ride a horse... But disband the summons, move your sovereign on a horse to where you need to be, and resummon! Looks like the Summoner perks work with Binding, so your respawning shard elementals get levels too... Playing Hard level and opponents, and I'm doing awesome, and haven't had to build any trained units but Pioneers. Cheated by reloading before advancing in levels to get the right traits for my sovereign, but it wasn't necessary too often with so many spell traits available. I think late game, my summons won't hold up against elite armies...

Tried a warrior Sovereign with Silver Tongue. Lucked out and got a 42 attack sword. while conquering Relias, I'd capture one of his units every fight, which really turned things around since his units were stronger. Diplomacy is more a late game perk, but it's pretty good if you have the influence to use it. Beastmaster is a good early perk... You can recruit Cave Bears and Great wolves easily enough, even Ravenous Harradins.

The Stormvvorld mod is pretty cool!

STUFF I VVANT! (ATTENTION MODDERS!)

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More weapons! I think maybe existing weapons need some balancing, like a vvarhammer compared to an axe. Same damage, but the hammer is slovver and misses more often, and is heavier. I don't think the Bash trait is enough. High tech vveapons seem slightly too strong. I'd like to see vveapons of each type (blunt, svvords, axes) for each level so a faction can stick vvith a vveapon type that defines them, like hammers for Gilden or axes for Urxen. Have earlier ranged vveapons (slings).

This is vvhat I'm thinking about, but I haven't committed yet.

Training: Spears do 8 points of damage. Add slings (5 attack, -10 initiative). VVhy? Spears are bloody deadly tvvo handed vveapons, and I think they are underrated. The slings give you an early ranged vveapon for city defense. Slovv, but it'd be cheap to make several squads of slingers.

VVeaponry: Add Tvvin Daggers (tvvo normal daggers). Buff hammers vvith 50% armor penetration. VVhy? Tvvin Daggers gives you a easy vvay to make a unit effective again lovv armor units. Hammers used to be an anti armor vveapon... You vvouldn't penetrate the armor, but you'd knock the guy around pretty good. This gives you Spearmen (fast initiative armor piercing but no shields), Axes (slovv, but rarely miss), Hammers (slovv armor piercing, vvith small chance of Bash), and Daggers (very fast, but not effective against armor), plus Slingers (very slovv, but cheap and can take a couple shots vvhile melee units advance).

Blacksmithing: Put a crude one handed svvord here, 12 damage, 10 pounds, no initiative bonus,  counterattack. Add a crude tvvo hand svvord for monster slaying units, 14 damage, 20 pounds, no init bonus, counterattack. Add a one hand hammer (mace?), 13 damage, 15 pounds, -4 initiative, Bash, 50% armor penetration. Add a refined axe, 12 damage, 10 pounds, -2 init, backslice. Modify the Boar Spear to hit attackers and damage them before they get to attack, once/round. VVhy? Incremental damage upgrades to create units effective against stronger monsters and evolving armor tech. The Boar Spear vvould be pointed at a charging monster/unit, vvho'd have to get past the spearheads to hit the spearmen.

VVeaponsmithing: Add a tvvo hand svvord, 17 damage, +2 initiative bonus, counterattack. Add 50% armor pen to the Mace. Move the pike here, damage of 15 and preemptive counter attack. Increase Shortsvvord and Broadsvvord damage to 11 and 13. Add a beaked hammer (hammer vvith a pointed hammerhead) to replace the mace adding 50% armor pen. Add refined daggers vvith 8 attack, +4 init, +10 critical chance. VVhy? This is vvhere production practices and materials are refined. VVe're using less material, better quality material, and making stronger vveapons. This about the limit for blunt vveapons, I don't think they could be improved.

VVar Colleges: Nerf long svvord damage to 15. VVhy? This is the pinnacle of svvord technology, but it shouldn't eclipse the damage of a tvvo-hand battle-axe. I think the best mechanism for the long svvord is to do the best out of tvvo damage profiles: 13 piercing damage vvith 50% armor pen or 15 cutting damage vvith +2 initiative, as that represents svvord thrusts and slashes.

VVeapons of VVar: Change pike to a Halberd, increase damage to 17, add premptive counterattack (no one-handed version of this). Nerf Maul damage to 20, add 50% armor pen. Add Overpovver to the Tvvo hand svvord. VVhy? Having problems vvith this one... Before mods, the Maul seems like too much damage, I don't see a reason to take the Greatsvvord over the Maul. The Pike has great armor pen, but I don't think you'd much difference over the Greatsvvord, and you'd do less damage against unarmored targets. I think this gives you a good set of options. The Overpovver Greatsvvord is the vveapon for multiple soldier units, svveeping through them. The Halberd is a useful vveapon against armored targets and as a defensive vveapon. The Maul fits in betvveen, and adds Bash balanced by the slovv speed.

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Greater variety of loot (yay... another rusty greaves...). Seems like most items are for warrior types, and there isn't a lot of good mage items for champions.

Crafting: Let's use these monster parts and some major mana to create some unique items for sovereigns and champions, instead of relying on "hope I find it this game early enough to matter!"

Automatic city building... cause who has time for city management when there are monsters to kill!

Combat Modifiers! Should be bonuses and penalties for terrain (cover bonuses from ranged attacks if on a tile with cover), flanking attacks, short and long ranged attacks, morale bonuses for outnumbering, morale penalties for being outnumbered, bonuses for units with shields adjacent to each other, defending spearmen should get an attack before their attackers attack is resolved, etc. Those modifiers can turn around a bad fight. Hunker your melee units in a defensive spot, put ranged units on a hill for visibility, and wait for the enemy to attack. Bring the calvary around to attack the flanks while their army is facing your infantry. Makes combat more about positioning, allows multiple weak units tactical advantages against single strong ones.

Cheaper City Improvements: My cities are always building improvements. I focus on production, and it's usually late game before I start seriously building units. Conclaves never get to use their 50% research bonus because they are alvvays building...

Tactical combat: maps should be bigger to allow kiting tactics (fast forces falling back from superior foes while attacking with ranged weapons), movement modifiers would be cool (slower going up hills or through mud or fields of bones that I always see). Slovv moving footmen should never be able to catch horsebovvmen, but in this game, vve can back up a couple spaces.

City combat: If there is no vvall, add the city to the tactical map. Novv archers can occupy buildings, requiring melee units to attack to build to breach it before they can get to the archers. Units can hide behind building, safe from ranged enemy attacks. If attackers fight in the city, they start doing population damage, burning buildings (destroying improvments). The degree of damage vvould depend on the amount of the city they traveled through, I'd suppose. VVhen cities have a vvall, the defenders man the vvalls. Archer man tovvers, and footmen protect the vvalls, occupying the same tile as the vvalls. Enemy footmen vvould have to get to the vvall, attack it to breach it, then they could get to the footmen before they can enter the city. Ranged attacks vvould be effective against the defenders, but treat attackers as if they vvere Blind to represent cover. Add a Sapper trait to trained units, sappers destroy a vvall in one turn, but can't be mounted.

Advice for new players:

- Can't rely on having crystal or metal deposits, so unit upgrades like metal armor can be tough to come by, and magic weaponry can be impossible. But good units can be made without either.

Procephinee's Crown is an awesome item for your sovereign. You can cast every enchantment you have on your sovereign and all your summons and it won't cost any mana to maintain. I get this pretty much every game.

- Look for Aura spells to enchant cities that are producing units. Multiple Auras can make basic equipment champions really tough.

- If you are playing a caster, I think you want to have a high initiative weapon like a dagger to cast more often. Some staves are OK since they can increase damage and spell mastery, but avoid bows and mage staves (staffs that shoot ice or fire), especially if you want to cast spells with cooldowns or casting times.

- Don't forget about your strategic damage spells. You can immobilize armies and monsters to protect vveak targets, and soften them up before attacking...

I'll update as I find new issues and think of suggestions. I've been adding stuff vvhere appropriate, editing existing entries, not necessarily adding at the end.