Laf.

Developers please don't dumb the game down too much.  Somebody getting killed on turn 3 to a golem (probably a crappy sand golem) that only has 2 movement when your starting sovereign can see like 4 spaces away is not a fault of the game.  That's just a player making a very very bad decision.

Hmm, there's a golem that can probably kill me 4 spaces away.  He only has 2 movement points so he can't reach me here and he just mills about his little area anyway.  I think I'll go stand next to him with my sovereign instead of building a city!

In that case that would probably be better off being considered a bad starting location, instead of the monsters being too hard.

I've been killed by them myself (in single player mode like twice) on the first or second turn, and a few times whilst looking for somewhere to settle a city. It's a mild annoyance in single player, but I can imagine it's very annoying in multiplayer.

By removing the high level monsters at the beginning, you're not dumbing the game down, you're making it less stupid.

On topic: I'd suggest that, as the factions make more and more of the world into their respective land, the native beasties that've got used to the wasteland start to get a bit peeved off, and head towards your cities. Allow them to plunge them into ruin, maybe? It'd limit mid game growth (although this might not be necessary) and be quite fun, to me at the least.

Observe:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oyifT0entQ

This video is a typical example of my personal experiences with early game golems.  Granted I haven't played a million games yet, so the fact that this is how golems have been for me every time doesn't necessarily mean they are like this for everyone.

In this video you will see me end several turns standing directly adjacent to a golem, in three different locations.  Note how even if I could only move 2 spaces I would have absolutely no trouble navigating past this golem if for some reason I needed to pass him to get to another area of the world.  Note also how this golem has a very tiny area in which he roams.  If I were to enter that area, he would attack me and I would die.  In order for this golem to kill me, I would have to actually try to make him kill me.

If this isn't dumbed down, I don't know what is.

Edit: Also, I apologize for the rushed video.  I only have demo version of fraps, so was limited to 30 seconds.  

I've seen golems at the start of the game, but they had like 20 hp and 3/1 attack/defense.

not much to write home about.

I mean if you can kill everything as soon as you start the game, it wouldn't be much of a dangerous world would it?

In 2-nil we had op skags and very op golems running around, but now we start near some nice spiders and a lot easier golems. I have yet to face something that breaks the game in 2-A. The only hard thing is if you play a mage with no combat abilities, which in the beta so far is useless as there is no magic yet, you would have to dodge the enemies until you build an army. But then again that is your choice, I say the starting should be a bit more random, but since they haven't finished the rmg that will have to wait.