Now you make me doubt, but I think I've tried sneaking 2 or 3 cities with no forest surround, and once they get access to forest, I could build it. I tried to be sure.

Maybe one city had forest in a corner, so could not build it in the begining, but when it grew, it gained access.

But I think the other cities had no forest surrounding.

I'll check it again.

Tuidjy, can you explain what good City Growth is, anyway?  Your section explains the mechanics very well, but one thing I still haven't really figured out is why I should care.  Each city level up is nice insofar as you get a free "perk" or building, but anything beyond that?  More city militia?  Seems to me that the "growth" buildings are a total waste of time, since you're capped by your total food, and you'll get there sooner or later even with just the default growth.

Do you have any more tips on handling research? I always fall behind the AI in research, and it's very frustrating because I don't get why (I'm not behind in cities or military strength I think).

I always had the same problem in civilization, and in the end I discovered it was because the AI was constantly trading tech with each other. (I hate tech trading myself because it feels like a chore.)

Is it the same, or do I just need to build more optimally so I get more research?

Everything Kongdej said is true. In mid game, you can add the "Revelation" and "Pit of Madness" enchantments to a conclave, for 2 research points per essence.  With all the research multipliers conclaves get, 50+ research cities are not uncommon by turn 150.

There's also something that players often overlook.  When you have reduced an AI in power, consider cordoning it off, and letting it live, even if you have to pay for peace with someone whom you utterly dominate.  Why?  Because a technology treaty is 10% to your research, and a weak AI is likely to be at war with everyone else, thus it will not be providing the bonus to anyone else.  The same thing applies to trade treaties and taxable income.  Just make sure that you cordon off the defeated AI from the other AIs.  You do NOT want them finishing it off, and you do not want it coming back, either.

In my last game, I kept Altar cornered on a peninsula.  10% to research, 10% to income, and a source of quest maps.  Much better than destroying them outright.

I think I'd rather go with something like

Trog/Quendar blood, empire, enchanters, lucky, death worship, master scouts, uneducated.

(but on lower difficulty levels, I'd probably not bother with master scouts, and instead pick something like Quick, Tough, Defensive, Binding, or Archers) -> probably archers if I'm planning on Quendar slave spam.

A fun slave-state empire I've found though is ... Lucky, Quick, Tough, Archers, Uneducated. Quendar race (of course), with a WARLOCK sovereign of either Fire or Death magic.

Could switch out Tough with Defensive of course .... but I haven't yet tested how well Slaves can hold shields

I have a number of play-throughs on this forum.  The last few are in .99x and thus pretty relevant.  Let me link a few...

Part of the AI experiment - the first 25 turns are here, the rest are further in the thread.

Standard Karavox in .982. The first post links some old play-throughs.

I do not have video recording software (which is easily fixed), audio equipment (which is not) nor a particularly clear English diction (which is the real problem)

OK, I declare the 'concepts' done.  Of course, feel free to suggest concepts to add, point out errors, stuff that need to be clarified, details that chance with new releases, etc...

As for me, I will start working on the strategy section at some point.

I wish.  Nope, you get a choice between Eastern European thug and lisping Frenchie. English is my fourth language.

I played my last hero as a full melee Pariden Sov...wicked fun. I didn't take any magic to start but grabbed an air book for Thunderstrike. I made sure I got all the unlocks on my other heroes (look at the spell book for the spell combos). I never play empire so I don't have death buffs. With Porcupine's Crown, well, I buffed the crap out of him. Pick the act first trait (can get a lot of them because you don't start with magic), and Thunderstrike right into the midst of the enemies and go nuts. A fully buffed melee hero with lots of shard backups is a marvel to watch, lots of fun and different than the casting sovs.

Thank you for this guide! Not only will it help, it will increase my enjoyment of the game.

Thanks, Tuidjy, I was looking forward to your Monsters section in particular.  Took me a while to figure out myself that monsters grew in strength over time, which is an important mechanic to understand.  Got to clear out those nearby nests quick before they become something nastier!

Two follow-up questions: 

(1) Can monsters spontaneously spawn in the in the fog-of-war?  Ie, if I have an area that I've cleared, and it's entirely blocked off by my domain, will monsters ever roam there again?  Or do monsters only come from lairs?

(2) Do wandering monsters ever settle down and found their own lair?  I feel like I have seen this before, but maybe I was imagining things...

Thanks for putting the work into this, Tuidjy, it's by far the most detailed and mechanics-oriented guide out there.

In War of Magic, at least in the original incarnation (which was technically glitchy but I loved), monsters spawned in the fog of war. I walled off huge areas of the map and farmed them with my heroes.

In FE like Tuidjy, I have not seen any spawn in a fog of war in the absence of camps. I don't know if the spawn rate at camps differs based on whether it is in the fog of war though, I may, if I am ever really bored, test that. I keep spawn camps of monsters that I get a lot of exp from but aren't that hard to kill, I am looking at Ogres and Trolls, hellooo Fireball. I used them to train my fresh out of the Fortress troops, although a fully upgraded Fort starts them off at a decent level.

Here is one caveat for early game, a troop of shortbows will save your bacon. You can probably tank decently as your sov or relevant hero, especially if you unlock that tasty spell resist shield and get some monk robes. The monster AI at this point (and I don't think wolves should be as smart as demons), just attack your tank and don't rotate around your tank as they can with zone of control, so your troop of archers should level pretty quickly. If you are lucky enough to see a refugee camp, beeline for it, it likely contains Panca archers, which are early game OP and useful well into the mid game.