Another phase over - the first war. Time for observations:

1.  The game is painfully slow.  My cities are nowhere close to having built even the critical buildings, I have dozens of undeveloped resources.  At least two have been in my dominion since I founded my first city. I have three outposts surveying 2-3 resources each, and not one of them is developed.

2. You can no longer snake a city over a river.  It seems very deliberate, because you could in Beta 4, and the way to do it has been only removed on rivers.  And removed hard.  No demolishing, no raising land... someone wanted cities to stay on one side of a river.  Such unrealistic, intentionally coded decisions are annoying.

3. It's been a long time since I have designed my spearmen, but I have nothing better to produce.  I finally researched mounted warfare, but I cannot really spare the production capacity for units that are faster, but no tougher than my basic unit.

4. Bugs, Bugs, Bugs.  Unrest in conquered cities keeps going up, and I have to go into the detail screen before I end the turn, and make sure that all cities have reset to the correct unrest.  Resources switch cities as new cities appear, retain the old producer, but use the new city production, and basically are all messed up.  The simultaneous moves of monsters and AI produces insane results - AI armies moving twice their move to successfully attack a monster that has moved away from them.  I am 99% sure I saw an AI build an outpost on a spot that should have been marked with my influence.  It may have not been at that very moment, because it seems that when you are upgrading some city buildings, the city's sphere shrinks.  Seriously, I have never run into so many bugs, but my theory is that it's because in this play-through I am simply using strategies I have previously dismissed as ineffective. (Yes, they are)

5. The monsters seem to be ignoring the AI.  I am not exaggerating when I say that some of Resoln lands were infested to the point where there was a roaming monster on every. single. unbuilt. tile.

6. The self-imposed restrictions on using heroes in enemy dominion are very artificial, and feel weird.  My heroes have not been developed, but they outclass the troops by so much, it's not funny.  Especially considering that I have thrown 7K (at the very least) on these troops and cities, while my heroes have been made to sit on the border.

7. The war was a cake walk.  No trained troops can touch my basic spearmen.  Once they fortify, all they have to worry is heroes.  There were some barrack produced troops that could hit them once in a blue moon.  Once they got a few levels, that did not matter.  Lucky + Fortify = Win

Yes, heroes can easily slaughter my spearmen, or at least could with the right AI.  As it is now, I rotate hurt troops out of the line, and regeneration takes care of them.  The enemy heroes do not hunt stragglers.  On the other hand, the enemy retreating units are nothing but a help to the player.

8.  The reduced production hurts the AI a lot more than it hurts me.  I had "wealthy", the AIs did not.

Really good observations, funny they keep being denied... Tuidjy for president... oh wait

I Still enjoy reading these

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

I am always curious at your sovereign and important hero levels, and what levels your spearmen achieved, I sadly find most combat between factions slighly too rewarding xp wise (in the games where I was stuck between 2-3 attacking factions on expert... don't ever just go on a declare war rampage when only using trained units... either that or play better than me )

Edit: Ment to say "War between factions needs some rewards xp wise... But I was obviously tired

Seems that krax is a very powerful use with lucky, hope krax's fortification gets changed at some point, everytime I experience it used it I shutter at how I could boost dodge to even greater lengths with those +30...

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Me too.  It truly captures the internal dialogues of my gameplay experiences as well, and what I believe to be one of the most enchanting features of the Elemental series: enticing the creative spark out of players.  Thanks again folks, a million. [e digicons]:')[/e]

Kongdej's perceptive question, Re: the levels of your champion and trained units, and your excellent answer (above) provide some really interesting/useful information here.  Nice work all around!

Your practice of relating the narrative in character makes the story more interesting; and because you drop out of character periodically to provide so much additional information, this whole thread really is an excellent project/experiment in every respect.  Again:  Nice job all around!     

The phase that just ended was a peaceful one, so I have only a few remarks.

1. The combination of Blindness and dodging troops is very effective.  You do not really need fortify except against the scariest enemies... Storm dragons are the only thing that gave Ceresa's little army any trouble - by the time Ceresa got through the dragon's magic resistance, it had actually landed a few blows.  Not that it mattered much against level 8 troops.

2. There's something very wrong with the cash flow in this version.  Partially, it is due to not being able to build merchant type buildings except for the first one.  But even if I could build them, I still think that the cities would not produce enough money.  I cannot imagine myself raising taxes, even if all my cities were founded by my own side.  Taxes hugely affect research and production, and there are other sources of income: quests, selling loot, selling metal and crystal to friendly sides that have not gotten their own suppliers.

As it is right now, one can completely ignore the money buildings, and build them only when there's nothing better to do.  By the way, up to turn 80, EVERY city of mine has been building crucial buildings (Production, unrest control, growth, food) without ONE turn to spare.

Of course, I rush production every time I have the cash.

3. I was the object of a domain push for the first time.  Annoying.  It cost me a lot of Gildar, but I managed to push back.

4. I really enjoyed seeing Yithril juggernauts armed with spears before he got a mine. I even sold him some metal at exorbitant prices.  Immediately he started churning out juggernauts with guillotine axes, and soon afterwards he attempted to extort money from me.  I love moments like this.

5. Some items have ridiculously high prices, without being particularly good.  The burning battle axe and the guiding pike sell for nearly 200 gildar each, and are nothing to write home about.  They paid for a mill.

6. Othollo got a Druss blade from a trivial quest.  He got asked a simple riddle, picked the obviously answer, and received the sword.  No risk, no fight.  Now that you do not have to research quests, this looks like the quest to find on level one.

Turns 82-92

The former Ducal Guard has it all worked out

Turn 82: Warlord Verga led a couple of juggernauts across the border and headed toward Blackstead.  The spearmen watched him slowly trudge through the forest, then used their scouting heritage to intercept him short of the city walls.

Some of the juggernauts were well trained, and managed to bring down a few spearmen.  But Verga himself only had a shortsword, and had trouble overcoming the legionnairs' regeneration.  Eventually he had to use his magic to get away with his life.

When Aquillina read the report of the battle, she decided that she did not have to worry too much about the fabled juggernauts.  The spearmen could hold their own, Ceresa and her cavalry were approaching the front lines, and the borders were heavily forested, which gave the legionnaires a huge advantage in mobility.

The Queen felt that she could focus on running her Kingdom while her legions took care of the war.  She authorized a group of settlers from Far Colony to found a city even further to the North.  They chose site between a crystal quarry and a Fire shard, and named their village Crystal Flame. 

Conclaves accept Aquillina's rule willingly

Turn 85: Ceresa reached the area of hostilities, and led her cavalry against the Yithril armies that had ventured in Aquillina's domain.  This freed the infantry legion to march on the Trog conclave of Ahilga.  The assault was conducted with the spearmen's usual efficiency.  Just like the Wraith conclave before it, Ahilga accepted Aquillina's rule without any unrest.

Meanwhile, Othollo had been adventuring in Procipinee's lands.  One of the many people he helped gifted him with a trained ophidian.  When reports of a rampaging ogre made him ride back to Far Colony, he let the ophidian loose to explore.

The legions appear unstoppable

Turn 90: After an year of constant fighting, the infantry legion cut its way through the armies streaming out of the Trog fortress of Timbraikat, and assaulted its walls.  The garrison was defeated easily enough, but the citizens were rioting, so Cuessa was sent to help them integrate into Kingdom society.

Meanwhile, Verga recovered from his wounds, gathered an army of juggernauts and set through the forest to challenge Ceresa.  Ceresa retreated, dragging an old slag skin behind her horse, and raising a cloud of dust.  While Verga was trying to catch up, the cavalry detachment rode around him, and occupied Alhain-al-Assan.  Ceresa dumped the skin, left Verga lost in the forest, and rejoined her cavalry.

The Empire of Yithril had lost its last city.

Aquillina's Kingdom after the fall of Yithril

Turn 92: Aquillina knew that Verga's spirit was broken, and that he would surrender if given the chance.  She also knew the importance of giving a conquered country a stable local government, and suppressing looters and rioters.  She instructed her legions to secure all known Yithril outposts and resources, as not to give its neighbors a chance to grab any former Trog lands for themselves.

When she felt the time was right, Aquillina asked Verga to swear fealty to her.  He agreed, and soon enough was ruling his former city of Alhain-al-Assan in the Queen's name.

In the process of drawing the new borders, the legionnaires made contacts with the nations of Tarth, Altar, and Gilden.  All three were friendly enough, and seemed interested in trade and cooperation.  

Aquillina went back to her research.  Always a realist, she knew peace was unlikely to last, and focused her research on military matters.

its the Torg, RUUUUUN!
gotta make a custom Torg race now, sounds kind of evil

I hope this will be implemented on some level on every difficulty level.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Tried reading this story, and google translate helps a lot.  Feels like played game already.  Looks impressive and complicated, and very very smart.  It on Steam, and thinking buy for myself.

BUT!  I see Tuidjy writes story.  How much is game, and how much is story of Tuidjy?  For example: Is really Othollo help people?  Is really Magnar slaves escaped?  Is really trade and cooperation with three new sides?  Why with them and not with Magnar/Pendor/Kraksis

I ask how much game, how much writer imagine?

I am sorry for my English.  By the way: Plans for Russian translate on Steam? My Russian better than Engiish

Northern Europe languages are finish, dannish, swedish (and possibly UK). Russian would be eastern europe.

Details, details details, he meant russian

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Hm I must be weird, haven't played it THAT much.

Try having ALL your champions go path of the governor, and not using them after lvl 4 .

Either that or play with pariden/resoln, they have ridiculously few hp on theyre sovereign/heroes.

Another rule could be playing without master scouts

Sincerely
~ Kongdej