Well, I have just completed my first winning game of Elemental - the first game that kept me gripped enough to keep going till the end.  I was up till 4.30am last night, and finally completed my domination early tonight.  Playing on a huge map, it really feels like you've traversed the globe, by the time you find that final, secluded faction in the furthest corner of the world.  Had to use a transport to reach the second continent - and that was not easy, with my army of 8 super-powered heroes in tow.  The only way of getting across the channel was to move the ship one square, then my army one square behind it - they would not properly enter the vessel.  Not sure if so many units are supposed to be able to do this, but either way, something needs to be fixed here.

Faction AI Report (observations):

The AI was soooo much better, than any version of Elemental I've ever played.  It's clear that multi-threading has worked wonders for the AI's ability to compete and make intelligent and strategic decisions.

Power rankings: (I was playing as Altar)

1) Yithril - extremely powerful, cities held many strong units - although there were still quite a few that were only defended by one unit.

2) Magnar - still very competetive, employing some intelligent tactics.

3) Gilden - Granted, this was very late on in the game, so they had a long time to prepare a decent army.  But their forces kept coming at me, in large and strong forces.  It was only my DIY Volcano Kit that rolled them over so easily in the end.

4) Kraxis - a fair bit weaker in comparison to the top three.

5) Tarth - I guess it's to be expected that the Kingdoms would be less competitive, compared with the Empires.  What I was really pleasantly surpsrised with was the much more immersive level of Faction interaction in 1.1.  Within a few turns, Tarth were on my doorstep, suggesting all kinds of interesting things.  First prize goes to them in the interaction stakes - this differing 'tone' really does help to give each faction a distinct personality.  Anyway, when I finally had to turn on them, they were pretty much a push-over.

6) Capitar - they spent most of their time on the world begging me to be friends, but had little ambition for expenasion or military strength.

7) Pariden - they were the last men (and women) standing - a single blue city on the edge of the world.  No competetion at all for my magnificent eight. 

8, 9 & 10) Resoln, Umber and some random minor faction beginning with I.. - the first two were gonners very early on, but never meeting them, I can't say why that was..  The random minor faction beginning with I, consisted of just one city hub - no building, units or leaders in sight, weird.  So I landed a volcano on them

Bugs:

1) As noted above, the ships being unable to load larger armies.

2) Dynasty trees getting jumbled up.  My Sovereign turned into his own grand-daughter, at the top of the tree.. some strange things going on here, but it was only temporary.

3) Heros' equipment not updating properly - this only happened once, and only for a short time - unable to change items in the Equip screen.

4) Once again, the Dragon's Egg quest had no activation for the final part - I returned to the dungeon where I met the dragon, but nothing happened..

5) Heros' and units HPs changing from map mode to TB mode - still can't work out what's going on here - it says that they are more in map mode, but they become less in TB mode.

6) Productivity reports in city ledgers showing minuses.  No clue about this, or if it's even a bug.

7) Some quest huts still doing nothing.

8) Random re-selections of units in TBs.  A bit strange..

9) Feezing screen/crash - much fewer than before, but about every 45 minutes.

10) I only saw one typo - in a quest for the hammery-anvily thing, I think..  A missing 'for', or something..

Suggestions/inconsistencies/likes/loves/gripes:

1) Equipment - this is better and more varied before, but something needs to be done about shields - the larger and stronger they get, the better the advantages, with no disadvantages - I could not see any speed penalties from these, but they really need to be added - there has got to be a downside to larger, heavier shields, in terms of speed.  Heavy armour has a speed (dodge) penalty, so why not heavy shields??  And also more penalties for heavy weapons - giving rise to more strategic choices over lighter, less powerful ones..

It's still a no brainer to go for the biiiig sword, over anything else.  There are more options in 1.1, and I like some of the enchanted stuff - but equipment, weapons and mounts are still waaaay too limited, to make any strategic choices here.  I approve of the new coloured cloaks to differentiate between heroes, and the subtle attempts to make different armours.. different..  Is there any way that modders could create new pieces of armour and weapons, utilising their own designs, colours and embellishments?  It would make this part of the game sooo much more interesting, and fun.

2) Horses - the benefits of riding a horse are still only evident on the map screen - surely some more bonuses need to be added for TBs - especially where speed is concerned.  A charge bonus would also be great.

3) I am really loving some of the new spells - Blizzard for one, at this time of year - I could watch those snowflake particle effects all night..  And really not loving some redundant spells, like Flame Dart.  In time-traditioned Kael-ishness, lose the spells that aren't being used, and streamline the ones that are.  Pleeeease, make each spell-book clearer and more well-defined - ie a page of Fire Spells, a page of Earth Spells, etc.. each clearly grouped by level.  Streamlining is the keyword here..

4) Loving the boss-hordes of monsters, late game - this really kept my interests, while scouring the world for the last living opponents to be omnipotence.

5) Improve naval... things....  please!  My single ship felt so lonely, slurping about in those endless blue oceans.  I didn't see a single other ship!

6) Please let Sovereigns remarry, if they lose their spouse.  It seemed that my offspring were being allowed to remarry - need someone to confirm/deny this..  And let Sovereigns and their offspring die, when they reach a certain age (+/- random amount, adjusted by their stats..)  I want to see wars of succession, children returning from the factions they married into, to make a claim for the throne of their father.  More.. interesting.. stuff.. please, for dynasties.. Please?

7) Please let us choose the formations of our armies, before going into TBs!  They are always so annoyingly and unstrategically random, every time!  Surely some sort of tactical formation could be saved, to ease our tactical freedom.

8) There really really should be a strength requirement for larger, heavier armour and weapons.  And an Intelligence requirement for enchanted stuff.  At the end of the game, I was taking in wandering ruffians and slushes, handing them a bunch of godly stuff and pushing them out to face (and slaughter) dragons, golems and elementals, single handed!    Also, there really needs to be a penalty for casting spells if you are wearing armour.  An incremental scale of possible failure, for using heavier armour/shields.  I would like to see blizzard spells backfire, and cascade down upon the hapless enchanter in his flame-proof heavy armour.  I would like to make my pure channellers lightly armed and armoured, or create a Warlock that balances the best of both spell effectiveness and combat prowess.  Oh and please cut down on the amount of amulets, charms, trinkets and rings heros can use - and let them only benefit from reading the same book once!

9) Ok ok, this is turning into an epic..  But wow, I loved playing this game, from start to finish!  Keep it up Stardock, you are so definitely going in the right direction.....!

0h and 10)!  I will think of this shortly.. I always forget things at the time of writing..! 

I've just remembered..! (thanks to another post I just read)  Just like food, mana or metal, mounts should be an exhaustable resource, I think.  Larger cities could produce more horses/wargs, or there could be a more subtler and interesting dynamic - perhaps you should only get new ones born in Spring, for example..  But to supply your entire army from one source of horses/wargs, seems wrong.  Oh and please give wargs some sort of bonus in combat!

That's it, done !