Strategies so far?

Just got the beta and what a great game! What are some of basic early and mid game strategies people are using?

Food = Population = Gold = Army = pownage

My hero looks for the best location within a few squares and settles then recruits the NPC. I try to find a second city post haste to get my population up. Is there any way to see the tile output without a pioneer or hero clicking settle?

For research I grab the first techs from all trees then focus on getting leather for defenders in the war tree.

How do people find the balance between armies, expanding and gold? When I first meet the AI they are like 60-80 power to my 12-20 and usually declare war and crush me. This is on normal and around turn 80.

Also is there any way to remove bad traits from wounded heroes? It seems like if they lose two or three battle they are pretty much useless.

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The strategies are very varied, depending upon the ruler and faction you play, the size of the world, amount of magic, monsters, etc. For example, I've been focusing on Pariden. They play well in long games, and pioneers are used to grab shards, with cities providing food and research enhancements. I run them almost immediately up to Sorcery for the elemental books, but in small worlds it's important to develop the warfare tree at the same time.

You remove traits by finding the very occasional restoration potion in a quest or monster lair. The only time I've needed it--after facing some elder god gone mad in a swamp--I didn't use it, because the mage was strictly back ranks, and a dodge penalty wasn't a big deal. Your mileage may differ.

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Don't bother trying for armor early, just stick with building a couple of spearmans (you'll want to redesign them with some good traits though) to help your sovereign kill stuff. The faster you clear the area, the more space you have to settle and expand. Learning what you can take on, and what you can't will help a lot as well.

Research wise, I normally grab the spearmen tech, then focus mostly in civic, but that's really up to how you want to play.

Oh, and you can see tile output by clicking on that little "x" button on the top right, just below your resources, this will toggle the output on/off.

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