Turn 130 - FP 58. Yithril is highest at 153. Irane experienced the first random event, which increased the accessory slots from 3 to 4 worldwide. Magnar is sending stacks south and it was definitely confirmed - those bandit hordes picked off at least 1 Magnar stack. However, Magnar had 1 run the guantlet and make it through - Irane is about to do battle. The designed units are rather scary, as Sean obviously hooked the AI up with what to build... continuing to fortify the area, can't get the pioneer through to found that city yet as either Magnar or the bandit hordes sit on top of the tile. This is a slugfest... there's one saving grace: all the factions appear to be a bit hampered by the insane terrifying world. No one as of yet has taken off in FP... which means Irane may still be in this.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Northern Border (showing both Magnar and the roaming bandits):

Turn 132 - Got it! 2nd settlement founded... max defenders, building town archery range, town watch, and nightwatch asap. In addition was able to hire Arando as 3rd champ. Irane is praying neither of those lair guardian stacks (bandit lair with captain and air shrill lair with air elemental) decide to attack. The entire game may now rest on whether Irane can get this city to a Fortress... praying to the gods. Also building a workshop to the right tile to block off any Magnar advancement. It's apparently a long way around to the southern front so they're going to need to go through this village. Sacked and destroyed Magnar's monument on the prestigious location. So much rests on this village growing, pushing out it's ZOC, and building up the defenses...

New Hallas:

Arando:

Turn 133 - Curgen's hold... level 4 fortress with 8 city defenders plus normal units. This thing will be a tougher nut to crack than the one that squirrel chases in the Ice Age movies.

Turn 140 - FP 67. Magnar highest at 168. New Hallas has not yet been attacked but there are roaming hordes of air shrills and bandits all over the place. New Hallas has 5 separate stacks on the border, 2 of which are the lair guardians. About to complete a monument which will hopefully push the Tarth zoc out one, and allow grabbing the influential prestigous location. Desperately need New Hallas to turn into a Fortress... no longer have bandits and shrills protecting the northern boundary from Magnar stacks. Strategic focus the next 10 turns, fortify New Hallas, nothing else matters. Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

New Hallas area:

Turn 150 - FP 69. Magnar highest at 184. Have 3 separate ore mines, metal is not a problem. Have now obtained the monument from magnar thus starting to gain influence. Have only 1 life shard for mana, 0 crystal, horses, and wargs... Continuing to shore up defenses in New Hallas over the next 10 turns via a hideout (+4 archer groups). Researching cooperation to get groups and storehouses to aid with city growth... storehouses will get capital to level 3. Will then turn to New Hallas upgrades via fortress. Strategically, hard to tell the next move beyond fortifying New Hallas. Based on the success of grabbing this northern town, may consider doing the same down south. Curgen's Hold will just be impossible to take at this point in the game thus focused on defending against any incursions. Have managed to build New Hallas into a wall with mountains to the west and ocean to the right - Magnar will have to go through New Hallas to reach the capital. Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

New Hallas:

Turn 160 - FP 72. Magnar is leading the pack with 208. Magnar sent one stack towards New Hallas, Irane and her archers engaged, beautiful victory. New Hallas has managed to make it level 2 and is now a fortress, building a hedge wall to add another defender and improve defender initiative. Hope will be growing again soon, have storehouses which will allow Hope to reach level 3. Also have groups, 75 gildar to upgrade a 3 man group to 4. May consider doing that for the handful of veteran units at level 3 or 4. Believe the next course of action is to solidy defenses at New Hallas with 9 units of 4 man groups - have Irane head south and settle the one location available that is next to a wolf lair and giant ravenous harridan... no hope of expanding north at this point due to Curgen's Hold defenses.

Turn 163 - one of the bandit hordes decided they could loot New Hallas... defenses will be tested. Here we go! Please note already used a few archer units to soften up one of their archers. I have no idea whether those barricades out front are vanilla or something Sean and Werewindlfr added but love 'em!

Well this is pretty neat (cough, bug). Have two city archers having a picnic on the hills surrounding the city (bottom left hand corner).

First serious test of Tarth defenses at New Hallas. Victory!

Turn 170 - FP 87. Magnar highest at 224. Next lowest is Resoln at 103... catching up. For the first time in ages, Irane is feeling optimistic. New Hallas is defended, borders are under control, both cities are growing. Hope is now level 3 - and starting to crank out cheap 4 man spear units. One downside... Magnar is spamming the hp curse on both cities which will be absolutely devastating over time. The next 10 turns will focus on keeping the defenses up north, Irane will focus on expanding Tarth to the south... will need the same approach, pioneers, settling city, immediately moving in defenders, etc. in order to grab that next city location. Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

New Hallas:

Turn 178 - things have gotten much worse on the southern border... spiders, and wolves, and martyrs, oh my!

Turn 180 - FP 92. Magnar highest with 230. Progressing south towards next available settling spot, making outposts and upgrading to wardens along the way in order to scare off the baddies. There are 3 lairs close by making very scary stuff - wolves, spiders, and martyrs. Irane stayed up north to guard against Magnar - the tank Arando is leading an army south to do battle with any wandering wolves. Too soon to tell whether the outpost warden/approach will work... New Hallas is continuing to upgrade for growth/defenses. However, Manager continues to spam hp debuff. That spell alone could spell doom. Personally wish the spell had a time counter (lasted 10 turns or something) or the player had the ability to counter it somehow (other than the very expensive disenchant spell). Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Southern Border:

Turn 190 - FP 100. Magnar highest at 238. Closing the gap with Gilden and Resoln whom are both a little over 120. Pushed the northern boundary out a bit with a town hall. Now have blacksmithing, thus the cheap spear units can use boar spears. Hope is making 4 man spear units and New Hallas is further upgrading defenses/economy. Believe in the next 10 turns will swing south again to campaign for the 3rd settlement. Lots of baddies down there... Magnar has a nice stack in Curgen's hold but the northern front is well defended from any shenannigans. Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Turn 200 - FP 123. Magnar is highest with 266. Just a few points behind Gilden and Resoln. Arando is campaigning in the south in preparation of founding the 3rd city. Hope is making cheap boar spear units to replace casualties from the war on the wolves and gear up for garrisoning the new city. New Hallas is finalizing a night watchman as an insurance policy against any nasty mobs up north. Magnar is quiet... although he keeps spamming that curse to nuke my defender hp's. That will be a serious problem over time. Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Northern Border:

Southern Border:

loving this playthrough

Thanks.   I was pretty damn close to calling it when I saw what was on both sides but now have a glimmer of hope (please excuse the capital pun).

, been playing seans mod a few times, and think all my maps looked like this, like to see you pulling through though.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

If you play on my custom map, the game is completely different. It's a rather large map. Gives all starting positions a strong start. Has an organized lair placement to govern expansion. I still do random from time to time, but it never feels as balanced.

I dont , the game is made around a somewhat balanced map layout and I enjoy not seeing the same mountain ranges all the time.

~ Kongdej

Season 210 - FP 131. Still playing footsies down south trying to time the founding of the 3rd city with the monster movements... and there's a crapload of 'em, it's like an episode of Walking Dead down there. With Giant Spiders. And Wolves. And Cave Bears. Just a general nightmare of terrifying and insane proportions! There is a good city spot down there but need to go through hell to get it. Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Southern Border:

I started to play a game on insane world, but on large map with good number of AI's. I am playing Ythril, and i was on a good start - got 7 cities around turn 200. But i am slowly getting discourage, killing those over 1000hp enemies takes forever ... I am now fielding Yaggernauts which kind of help but still ... Turtling a lot. Just hoping that my development eventually will outsource the world, sometimes i wander, what if i field the hardest units and still, my enemy is way ahead of me - like having 3-5k hp after all this leveling. I am already seeing 1k bears, and i have no clue what would be able to handle 5 of them ....

I hear ya bpalczewski. I remain optimistic I can hang in there... the world is not only punishing me, it's punishing all the factions (I like that personally). It's the only thing I can count on to give me time to develop.

Turn 220 - FP 131. Magnar is highest by far at 312 and Resoln is lowest at 126. Northern border is quiet, have been unable to settle the third city... too many mobs. Wolves sacked one of my outposts down there, rebuilding. Trying to time settlement when the mobs leave... but they're not goin'. This may not work on the southern border, too crowded... we'll see how the next 10 turns go.

Turn 230 - FP 133. Magnar highest with 395 and Resoln lowest with 121. Nothing much has changed... wardens on southern border are working overtime to push the walking dead out of the area so Tarth can found their 3rd city. Have armor now, thus Arando is decked out in Masterwork Chain. Furthermore, since metal is not a problem, Tarth is able to make some turtle tanks in masterwork chain (if had crystal could deck them out in Champion's gear). Weak on the weapon side... but definitely will be able to soak up some damage now. Northern town is about down with a fort, which will add 3 more defenders and 2 more archers. Northern front is secure, just need that 3rd city to make a breakthrough... save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Southern Border (note the giant ravenous harridan bug [haha, pun] has no graphical icon):

New Tank Unit:

Turn 250 - FP 154. Settled the third city named Ithuane! A brave Tarth pioneer rushed inbetween monster movements and founded. Irane then scrambled in with both heroes and best units Tarth had to offer. Irane determined the strength of the entire kingdom needed to be here since the northern city New Hallas was now a level 3 fort with 13, yes 13, city defenders plus 9 normal units. Magnar has not moved in a long time - he sees the fortifications up north and goes elsewhere. Tarth's future lays down here... Irane has a deathly fear of spiders, especially 4 stack corpse spiders with 3K health. Considering a lone corpse spider wiped Irane's complete army many seasons ago that is understandable... the next 10 turns may be very interesting. The next settlement opportunity is on the horizon, if Irane can only get there... save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Ithuane (3rd city):