lol Assassin demons got nothing on Umbradoths.

Well I don't find Assassins to be that big of a deal as long as you don't feed them. However some of the new wandering monsters are kinda tough and impossible to stop early game. That Umbradoth was wandering a good 12 tiles from his spawn and frankly was totally impossible to stop with early game units. A significant starting time before tough monsters like that start to spawn and wander around, say 100 turns would be nice.

Got the strolling assassin demon, too.  Lost my city to it.  Still plenty of time to tweak the placement of first cities.

Gatherer spiders...

right of the start, 3 groups of 5

It would be nice if the spawn of these monsters was delayed till like turn 70 or something but thats as far as i'd take it.

Maybe I'm mistaken here (not the first time, as many may tell you!) but I think the direction is that you're suppose to struggle in the early game vs. enemies of that caliber. You have to make a decision on how to handle them which may mean not being able to expand to that second city.

You could argue that it's not fair or fun, certainly, but I would say it's far from impossible to hold off an invasion like that.

I was one of those unfortunate folks that had the close Umberdroths(sp) in a camp nearby and the only way I could manage to beat one(1!) of the buggers was in my city with the extra help in the early game.

I play on hard difficulty medium maps with dense monsters. The key to surviving early is to be maximally aggressive with leveling your heroes and sov.

By the turn 35 my heroes are usually level 6 or 7.

Few tips:

• Focus on weaker mobs and collecting goodie huts before going for the tougher ones.
• Remember that sov doesn't suffer any penalty for defeats, so he is a good choice to be monster fodder
• Single heroes level much faster than when grouped.
• Warriors with Double Strike and Crushing Blow are insanely powerful against monsters early, mid and late game 
• Specialize one of your heroes to be a Warrior
• Assassin demons are best fought with units that have lots of hit points like heroes

I find early game monsters extremely fun as it is now, and wouldn't want it toned down.

Did you guys tried lowering game difficulty or monster density to sparse?

Please keep the medium level monsters spawning early and potentially near the city.  The challenge of the first 50 turns is one of the things the game has right so far.  

It's a hostile world.  You SHOULD have to deal with a potentially badass (for the time in game) monster showing up.  If you don't, then how the hell are we supposed to feel like its a dangerous world.  

"Sure, it's a dangerous world full of monsters.  But magically none will ever threaten your starting city until you're strong enough to kill them!  See!!!  Dangerous!!!"

I love it when you have powerful creatures lurking around in the early game. You have to focus you statagy on defending against this creature. Can be quite a challange.  This happened a lot in AOW:SM after my friends and I added over 500 creatures in the game many of which were nasty. And they could appear anytime in the game. Our scouts spot a Hill Giant rampaging the land and we have to build up our infrastructure as fast as we can to build the units to stop him if he attacks and since I always have the AI as very aggressive he will eventully attack.

Oh I agree. Umberdroth however have around 25 attack, 20 defense, 60 hitpoints and 4 movement with super high initiative. They also have charge, spell resistance, bash, dodge, and overpower. First turn they usually cross the map and rip apart one of your units.  They basically eat unlimited amounts of low level units and champions for breakfast. Super impossible to defend against early game. Spiders and Assassins you can beat, Umberdroths will destroy you.

I like it the way it is. Sometimes you get into situations where monsters whip you early game. Thats fun in my book. I try to defend/avoid and restart if I am eradicated.

I find the fact that once I have leather armor and weaponry 95% of monsters are no threat much more annoying than dying to the occasional Umberdoth.

The trick is, though, once you beat them once, you pretty much can beat them everytime from the massive experience from it. In the game I played where he attacked the city, I had to forfeit basically whatever unit he attacked first and then get a stable unit to defend with it. Can't recall if I used militia or defenders, but whatever the unit was, I was able to live the initial attack and cast heal until the unit had finally died.

Had I not had heal? Well, I would have had tried to debuff him. Maybe a high-dodge character. Maybe regeneration. Maybe lots of other things, but the point is you try to make the best decision with all available options.

It may seem counter-productive, but if you can't beat him defensively, you can opt to beat him offensively (Lots of spearmen!).

I like it the way it is.  It made my choose my first city more carefully, and easy mode was not so difficult I had to give up.