Anyway, time for my comments. This time I will focus on the way monsters treat player towns. I make no secret of this, I found myself pretty hard pressed the last few turns, i.e. I was forced to make moves which I did not feel were 100% safe. I did not expect this to happen on challenging.
I started this game very conservatively. I didn't want to outpace the AI too much, and I had a side which I did not know well.
I had last played Procipinee a long time ago, when heroes were mighty, hit points were much higher, regeneration worked in combat, shards gave 3 mana per turn, and outposts developed resources without tying up cities. Each of these things has changed and has made things worse for Procipinee.
To make a long story short, I knew I was playing a very weak side, I did not want to grow too strongly, and I settled way more cautiously than I usually do. Those who have watched my playthroughs know that I usually place cities everywhere I can, take out skaths and umberdroths casually, and cleanse the dragons and slags around turns 60-80. In this game, I left two prime spots unsettled because of dragons and slags, left resources unclaimed, and even knitted my dominion together by linking upgraded outposts across ocean straights (as not to wake an obsidian golem)
Nevertheless, on turn 74, despite all of my precautions, an umberdroth headed straight for my city. It would head to a different city when my troops would guard the city, but it would target it at once as soon as they left it. A few turns later, an army of silt skaths woke up and immediately headed towards another city of mine. Procipinee waltzed with it for 9 turns!
Now, understand that without an effective heroine (Alisa) or without the lucky find of the collar (which gave me the skath) Pariden would have no chance whatsoever in stopping the umberdroth or skaths. None. Sure, I could have found Ralle, or a darkling cloak, or a quest map, or a guiding longbow... but without a lucky find and the knowledge to exploit it, I would have been D.E.A.D.
The monsters behavior did not appear random at all. It was very efficient, they were seeking out weakness, and backing off on the very turn conditions changed.
It is my firm belief that the enemy AIs could not have dealt with something like this AT ALL.
I have not looked at the AIs yet. I will once the game is over. But I know that Yithril's pathetic swamp city was a softer target than Raven's Heart, and that the lone Verga was a much softer target than Procipinee's army. Still, the unberdroth always came at me.
Maybe it was just bad luck. Maybe the AIs have been mauled much worse than I nearly was. I have reasons to believe it, as the Great Mill was taken, but then became available. I WILL know once I revisit the turns with FoW disabled. I WILL revisit this topic.
Still, I am making a note for things I will check after the play through is done.
1. I will park a pioneer of mine next to the Gilden pioneer that has been ending a dozen turns next to a troll (I keep extraditing it there) and roll the dice until one pioneer gets attacked.
2. I will roll the dice ten times when the umberdroth is between Procipinee and Verga (Procipinee being 5 times stronger) and see how many times Verga gets attacked (In the play-through, the umberdroth attacked Procipinee)
3. I will look for monsters woken up by the AI dominion, and see whether they bee-line for my cities the way the crag spawns, the air elemental, the umberdroth and skaths did. NONE of them chose to wander off when they had the strength to attack a city.
