Brad - can you please review these saves? Large map, max factions, ridiculous across the board, and there are a few factions hovering around 6 or 7 faction power while Gilden and Altar are growing exponentially. I've seen this before in prior games - I've seen pioneers and such trying to path somewhere but bouncing into a mountain like lemmings. One or two factions seem to grow just fine and the others just impotently sit there. It doesn't make much sense as the map is large and there is plenty of room to settle. Gilden is even colonizing the other side of the map.
I took out Magnar early (Capital2) and then consolidated my area to civilize the lands. Am about to go take out Umber and Yithril before I deal with Gilden. They've got the edge on military (battle axes vs. my war staffs) so I'm paying them off while I upgrade my military tech.
Anyway, thanks in advance for looking into it. Here's the most recent save and the one prior to it.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19969679/Elemental/1.EleSav
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19969679/Elemental/2.EleSav