How about requiring the broken resource to be visited by a champion before rebuilding. This will mean you probably need to kill the wondering monster or deal with the group. It is also a reason to have a champion in every city / outpost. many of monster dens in the game currently require a visit before building on them (Forest drakes).
You can build archers once you research them in tech tree AND build an archery range. This is quite different than before. Also to build groups need to first construct a command post. No more building best units in frontier towns....
1) Defend cities with more than one weak unit. 2) Notice that my archers tear you apart and put your best armor on your new units 3) target my ranged fighters (archers and spellcasters) in tactical battles first. Currently it seems to pick on the closest enemy. I always target the archers first, then the spellcaster. Unless it is spiders, then I go for the poison spitting one first. Just to 'me too' one of the
I liked: No need to spam cities. One could build just two or three cities, and still be able to win against the AIs dozens of cities. Lots of choices in how to win the game, and that I could change midway through and still do ok. How they races played different, but were still flexible enough to yield many paths to winning. The awesomeness of casting timestop!
How about you start with one city. Pioneer can only build an outpost (a size 1 city with no growing influence beyond the one square). The outpost can build one caravan that connects to your city. A second city can be built only by gaining research in civics, and this could be a repeatable tech so if you really want lots of cities you can, but they would not happen until much later in game.
I have lost in games when I use a turtle strategy. I always win with an early rush. Once you get a small lead, it seems impossible for AI to catch up. I would like to see a 'loser bonus' to help when one is really far behind (or to hinder the top guy). If you want to lose, build a few (3 or 4) early cities, then just explore and don't add any more cities, or attack any AI cities. They will eventually overpower you. It is fun to see how long you can hang on. &nbs
I think you are way too harsh, almost like that all-or-nothing thinking... The game is not entirely broken and fundamentally flawed. Also you accuse the authors of just adding a bunch of stuff that doesn't fit together - but then you do the same thing. The premise of the game world is that magic is rare - but you would prefer to have lots of magic and lots of powerful magic. Thi sis just you having different expectations and wanting the game to be your design. I like th