if you settle near lair and disturb mobs by area of influence you shoud expect city raid and must deal with lair before setting town.

i run into similar issue with dark wizard lair (it oneshot my entire army with despair) 

This does not sound bad at all.  I love tough starts in a game. And lets face it this game is not tough but it is getting better in this area. And yes I have started in situations similar to what you describe.  Some times I over come and sometimes I don't.  Now I'm all for options that allow tougher starts without changing the overall game setting. Maybe a set of options to taylor your game to how you like to play similar to CIV.

That's called LOSING and it's part of life in games. There's no reason to make borders you LOST so take your medicine and move along nothing to change here. :{P

This isn't really a sandbox game where you play as long as you want to like those other childish games. This is a sandbox with an open world where "anything" can happen, yes, even the thing that just happened to you....you LOST! Game over Man!

And it's real simple to just start another game now isn't it? (I wonder how he reacts in chess when someone takes his Queen piece?) lol

@Joeherbert48

Your the absolut best and coolest...no more words to your comment. Don't feed the troll!

The Iron Golem came out of the Shattered Lands. My cities haven't reached their borders

into the Lands. I had stationed my complete army in the 2. attacked city and had no chance to win the fight.

I played with LH 0.75 on difficulty Normal. Golem has Defense about 35 and Attack about 54. No chance at early game.

Losing is fun too...

There does seem to be an issue with the wildlands.  The wildlands creatures used to stick to their territory much more.  It actually made them harder to conquer because they were so well defended.  Now you have deadly stacks wandering the map right from the start (and ignoring the AI of course).  I have had games completely stall because of strong or deadly wildland stacks parking outside my capitol.  I don't mind the lesser spawned recruits wandering a bit, but the big boys should stay closer to home.

That first post by OP makes me want to start another game.  I love the nature of one-in-a-while-you-don't-have-a-freakin'-chance that comes with this game, bug or not.  That reminded me of my old school days with games like Might and Magic.  Turn left, die horrifically, turn right?  You are fine.  Nothing hints at which way to go and the game never apologized about it.  $$$

That was my first thought. My question goes to the developer, if this issue is part of "hardcore-gaming" or just a bug.

I don´t believe that it is the will of the developer, that opponents, which are designed for late-game-fights, wander around and destroy (only) human player´s cities at the beginning of the game.

I think hardcore playing means, that I have to play extremly perfect, to have a chance to win. But in this case, there is NO chance.

Maybe there are some sadistic freaks which are delighted by starting up the game 15 times, until they have a suitable starting position and no Level 15 Monster near their capital. But in my opinion that thing only can be a bug.

The wildlands are very hard and have the content for late-game. Therefore there are borders around the wildlands and its´ beasts. If you decide to go inside, the struggle begins. But it should be player´s decision, if he is ready for it and the monsters are freed. This is the thinking of the developer.

And for all the "if game is to hard for you, you are too weak" comments:

I don´t think that people, which are loving to play strategic games like LH at normal difficulty, have to ask some "hardcore-kiddies" if they are allowed to play THEIR game. If you want, play on godmode. I played on NORMAL and balanced adjustments and the issue with roaming Level 15 monsters at game-start has nothing to do with tactical genius.

This issue is still present as of .80.  Currently have 2 obsidian golems wandering my territory, without any civ disturbing Imperium.  Fortunately, tremor still works on them.

The only thing that can kill LH is if they make the monsters docile.

Actually, I think the monsters probably hurt the reception of Fallen Enchantress.  For a new player, the danger of the monsters destroying cities is very real and makes those players feel powerless to do anything about it.  This is lost on us that know the game and understand it better, but the roaming powerful monsters can feel random and undefeatable, which provokes the worst thing a strategy game can have, a feeling of unfairness.  It's a difficult road to walk with the monsters to make sure they are interesting, a challenge, but also don't discourage new players.

I agree, but I'll pick a nit. 

I think that if the game had an unobtrusive way of informing you about the impending doom that these uber-monsters will wreak, it would help with immersion.  If the OP had gotten a message 5 turns before that said, "Rumors are spreading that a terrible {Monster Name} has been released to the east of {Town Name}.  If true, it means calamity and certain doom for us.  Something must be done to stop this beast before it destroys everything we have struggled so hard to build."  Then, when the Golem appeared and destroyed his empire, he could have built a narrative around the event and rationalize the destruction of his fledgling empire in a way that would encourage him to come back and try again.

Right now, new players tend to pull agro without realizing what they've done.  One turn everything is fine, and their empire is growing nicely, the next turn they are dead for no reason they can discern.  The game gives you zero feedback.  For all the talk about "flavor" in FE/LH, the game does almost nothing to aid you in building a narrative while you are playing.  And, I believe, that makes its cruelty all the more frustrating.

Of course, some players will be turned off because they don't like losing.  I don't think any changes should be made to make the game easier (in fact I'd like to see monsters be a little more dangerous), just to make it more entertaining when you die.