Sounds like its your playstyle. I normally get 2-6 champs during the game and its enough. Do you research the techs for hirering them?

Still I would like some kind of mercenary building or quests that will give champs (there are already at least one quest that gives a champ as a reward).

Hmm, I think you are overinterpreting a consequence of your playstyle. Since I play a lot of TB 4X games in this vein (Civ X for all X, MOM, MOO, etc. etc.), I always prioritize getting out and finding the lay of the land. You want to scout out the best city sites and grab them before the other players, and in this case also grab up the cheap low-level champions so you can grow them.

That said, it is a flaw in the game that early scouting and aggressive colonization is the only way to get very far. On-map resources are so precious that a compact "tall" empire is not a viable choice.

Awww you felt the need to share your gaming history. I have played turn based games since Civilization was originally released back in the days of Amigas and 286s. So you can leave the bragging and penis comparison of what games you played outside the forums.

It is not a play style problem. It is a problem with the random generation for tiles. There was always issues with the random generation of tiles with EWOM. If you remember there was issues with resource randomness, assuming you played EWOM. Not very hard to associate that same issue with champions.

EWOM also had the same issue with horses and worgs. They were faction specific and it was either feast or famine every game. Any time you make a tile faction specific the randomness is always going to be an issue.

in EWOM the champions spawned later in the game as the game progressed. FE does not do that, or yet if it is scheduled for a later beta version. So it needs some sort of mechanic to make champions available later for initial purchases or replacement for ones too injured to be of any use.

My latest game I owned five cities and scouted 4 of the AIs. In that area I only saw one other champion (not including the first one) and it required tech to get. When I got the tech researched it was already gone. Hence the AI either killing it or hiring it.

If I have five cities I should be able to find more than one champion. Preferably one for each city, then at least two to three to lead armies. A mayor for each and a general for two to three armies. Not really far fetched or askign for too much.

So for future reference, you might want to consider this game is in beta (in case you forgot) and criticizing other peoples play style when they present issues is not the intention of participating in a beta. The idea is to find a balance issue that works for everyone who plays, not just people that have played turn based games for decades.