I started writing this on another forum, because someone asked for my feedback on the game. I've decided to also post it here. All my out of game thoughts and happening are enclosed in [] brackets. I've been noting game crashes, but hopefully with the latest patch and then day-0, I won't have to.

I started out by customizing my avatar, Sir Wilheim of Capitar. It's a pretty simple thing, you've got a fair amount of choices, but it's hardly an overwhelming process. I decided that Wilheim would be a former merchant (which gives me a small amount of additional revenue each turn, even if I don't have a settlement), that he would be able to cast summoning, and enchantment spells (you can purchase more spellbooks at the start, but I chose to take only two), that he would also be a genius (this allows him to add a small amount of additional tech knowledge to my cause, even if I've got no settlements), but that he would be ugly (he has fewer children when he marries...even his wife doesn't want to go there...). You can also pick your avatar's moto, I think mine was "Everyone deserves the blade sometime...", very comforting to his subjects I'm sure...You can also pick your starting equipment, but it costs points, which I spent on other things. I figure I can find or purchase equipment later... [I had no issues with this part of the game, no crashes, no bugs, everything worked well. I wish they would add an option to turn your avatar around in the preview screen so I can see what's going on with his capes, etc.]

Once in the game, it didn't take long before I found a reasonable starting area for my kingdom, and the small settlement of Zillanthium was founded. Once I founded my initial city I quickly set out upgrading it, building a farm, a study, and arcane laboratory, and a workshop. I also ran into an wandering economist named Janusk, who offered to join my cause. Janusk was pretty helpful as I stationed him in my fledgling town for defense as Sir Wilheim ran around with members of the peasant militia and vanquished the few wandering rogues in the area. [at this point the game crashed to the desktop.] I reloaded my autosave [the game saves every 3-5 turns, so the crash didn't set me back very far], and quickly sent Sir Wilhiem back into the wild to kick some rogue ass once again.

Wilheim returned to Zillanthium, which by this point had become a small but busy town, and began to learn some spells [my lore masters had researched and could teach him the first 3 spell levels at this point. You don't automatically earn the spells just by having the spell books, you have to decipher them and then learn them...this is cooler than it sounds.], namely the Arcane Armor and Arcane Weapon spells. In the mean time, Wilheim issued edicts that further improved the infrastructure of Zillanthium. [the game crashed once again, while I was learning the spells, I spoke with the some of the community and members of the dev. team in the chat, and they said that they are issuing a patch tonight that would fix some of the most common CTD problems.]. Once I got my game back up and running, I decided to train some actual soldiers and stop relying on my peasant militia when it came to matters of royal protection. I also used that time to train a pioneer to help found my second settlement.

Once the pioneer was trained and equipped, I sent him out to find a good spot nearby to settle, but he was killed pretty quickly by a pack of wild rock lizards. It appeared that Sir Wilheim and his royal guard, being the entirety of my tiny armed forces, would have to escort the pioneer, while Janusk once again held down the fort at Zillanthium. I decided to do the smart thing though, and recruited a couple of soldiers from the peasantry to assist Janusk, just in case. [I noticed at this point, that there's a SERIOUS discrepancy in how much a sword costs when you train a soldier, and how much a sword costs when you buy it for your heroes. The sword I gave to the peasant cost about 5g, the same sword in the hero item shop cost 70g...I guess it's for balance purposes, but it was still strange.] Once the peasants where trained and armed, I sent Sir Wilheim, the Pioneer, and the royal guard out to found my second settlement.

It took ages to find a decent spot, which was both a blessing and a curse. We covered a lot of ground, and in doing so found many artifacts and embarked on many side quests [one of the coolest things about the game is the random quests you can get by moving your hero over goodie huts and inns on the map. I escorted two noblemen, and helped an old alchemist find his old lab.] We noticed some wild horses in the distance, and decided that we would found our second town, Grumpshire, near the horses since their numbers where great, and they would be an invaluable tactical resource. We founded Grumpshire, and only then realized that there was no suitable farming land anywhere near the town. Luckily for me, Sir Wilheim had learned a spell that produced magical sustenance that would hold over the town until a more permanent solution could be found. [some of the spells sound like they'd be useless, but in reality they all have a purpose, who'd have thought I'd need a "magical food" spell?] Once I was satisfied that Grumpshire was safe, and protected by some of the strongest units my kingdom could provide, mounted town guards trained by the veteran royal guards themselves, Sir Wilheim and the royal guard set out to make the long journey back to Zillanthium. [and the game crashed again.]

Upon returning to Zillanthium, after his year or two long absence, Sir Wilheim was pleased to see town walls rising from the horizon as he approached. The little town he left behind had become a bustling city. Wilheim quickly set out to turn Zillanthium from just a city, to one of the major cities in the known world. He acomplished this several years later as he built two of the "wonders" of the world in what was now his capital city. The first was a great library, that enticed all the scholars from all over the world to it's vast stores of lore and science. The second was a great military school that trained the most fearsome units, and forced his rivals to respect his military authority. [They're not called wonders of the world, but I don't know what else to call them...there are certain improvements that can only be built once by any empire.]

 

To be continued...