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 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 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.

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

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 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 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:

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).

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.

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 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 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: