I played for a lot longer than I should have last night...

I turned off particle effects, and my crashing went away.  So, hopefully particle effects will be fixed next beta drop.

I created a city next to a Drake lair (it was listed as a resource, and I wanted to try to "get" it).  I was told that my faction could not use that resource.  I was playing as a custom Kingdom faction.  I am wondering - what factions are allowed to use that as a resource?  In any case, rather than attacking me and my city (and probably killing everyone in the process), it got up from its' lair, took its' two sets of 3 kids, and wandered away a couple of tiles.

I created an outpost.  Its' borders were one or two tiles away from a Harridan Army.  I took what I thought was a sufficient army to take it out.  It had a 68hp big mama and two 19hp wee widdle babies.  I killed one of the babies, the mama killed all of my troops save one (which had 3hp left), and severely wounded my sov and champion.  I cast escape, and retreated back to my outpost.  The bug followed me!  Ouchy!  I started building some new troops at my city.  My sov had 9hp.  He wasn't up for a fight.  She attacked.  I cast escape.  I did this for probably about 20 turns.  She attacked 12-15 of them.  I cast Escape every single time.  I finally had a decent army (some mounted troops, some mages), and my sov and champ were fully healed.  I waited 2 or 3 turns for her to attack again, but she declined.  So, I attacked her. 

During the ensuing battle, her baby webbed a mage.  Oh gee!  A ranged unit with no armor can't move forward to engage in hand-to-hand combat!  Whatever shall I do!  I know - I'll use the unit's RANGED attack!  OK, so maybe webbing a unit I wasn't really planning on moving anyway wasn't such a hot idea.  Maybe webbing my horse troops would have been better.

During the time that she was attacking and I was escaping, neither of us ever moved from our tiles.  She stayed at her same tile, her same point of attack.  I stayed at my same point of defense, in the outpost. 

I think that if a defender casts Escape, he should be moved back a tile, and the attacker should move forward into the tile previously occupied by the defender.  If the back is blocked, then move to the side.  If the only way out is forward (past or through the attacker), then they should switch places.  In addition, when the only way out is past or through the attacker, maybe escape becomes more difficult, or there is a free attack, or the defenders first have to move past the attacker(s) on the tactical map, or something.  I suppose that if the attacker moves into a location, such as an outpost or city, then that outpost or city would then be under attack.  Or conquered.

If the attacker escapes, then everybody ending up at their original location makes sense.  The attacker simply ran back to where he came from.

Procipinee wandered into my territory, so I offered her a non-aggression pact.  She wanted me to pay her 30+ gildar.  I declined.  I ordered her out of my kingdom.  Two turns later, the obstinate woman was back!  So, I offered her another non-agression pact.  This time, she was willing to pay ME 30 gildar!  So, I had her pay me...   This, in my mind, raises two issues: 1) Why, when I evicted her, did she immediately turn around and come back in?  2) What changed in two turns that caused her to go from wanting me to pay her, to her being willing to pay me?

Overall, I am enjoying the game.  Being able to play a bit longer is nice...