I have to say, this is a great fun game!  Well done so far, I’ve sunk many hours into it already.  I’m on my third playthrough this time as a Wizard.  First time was Commander, second was Guardian.

Overall, I think the game is too easy.  Granted I haven’t played Insane difficulty yet but my first playthrough as Commander on Normal difficulty was a cakewalk, the SK only threw his armies at me once about midway through the campaign.  He did manage to destroy two of my newer cities but once I got my Champion back to the area he quickly wiped them out and I rebuilt.  The second playthrough as a Guardian on Challenging difficulty was even easier, the SK basically turtled until I hunted his lieutenants down and then waltzed up to his citadel and said a few harsh words and banished him to the next realm.  Both two playthroughs I ended up conquering the world with every site explored and every SK stronghold destroyed.

Currently I’m playing on Challenging difficulty (Large random map) as a Wizard and I’ve already conquered half the world.  The SK has been a bit more aggressive this time which is nice, but now my Warrior Hero armed with the Soveriegn Sword (+5 mana per kill) and with the +health regeneration ability simply tears through any enemy stack they can throw against me.  I just send him in and finish the battle with tons of new mana.  I’ve taken the doomsday clock from ~240 down to zero just by sending him in to fights and casting several iterations of “reduce doomsday clock” or whatever the spell is called.  Plus with my established cities and captured shards I’m generating well over 50 mana per turn.  There’s no way the SK can push the clock fast enough for me to keep it down to double digits.  In the meantime I’m working on conquering the other half of the world.

I’d like to see more aggressive AI in the beginning, currently the SK doesn’t pay much attention to me until it’s too late for him.

Here’s some other observations:

1. Can’t train Sniper (Guardian avatar) or Battle Mage (Wizard avatar) units.  Instead, once the prerequisite building is constructed, another Pikeman option becomes available.  I even trained the “new” Pikeman hoping it was just an artwork mismatch but I just got another Pikeman.

2. I’d like to see the corrupted land around a player city regenerate.  Once I destroy an SK stronghold and settle the land it once inhabited, I think my new city and its industrious laborers should be able to heal the land around it over time.

3. Why do the harvest (mountains & forest) spells destroy the land around where the spell is cast?  I get the idea of abusing the environment but the damage the spells cause make them useless to me, I don’t ever cast them any more after the first time I destroyed all the nice fertile land around one of my cities.  They shouldn’t cost doomsday clock points either but I think you’ve addressed that in the next update.

4. I like the crafting idea and being able to equip trained units with items, but I think you should be able to equip them with swords/shields/bows/staves as well.  It would be nice to be able to hand my old sword down to one of my veteran Sentinels or Riders.

5. Outpost Health.  I can’t see it although maybe I’m missing something.  But I guess it doesn’t matter since the SK never attacks Outposts.

6. Outposts should get +1 ZOC for each level 3 attack and fortification.  If I’m going to sink 7 Pioneers into an Outpost, it should get +4 ZOC beyond the initial +2.

7. Should each city connected to the empire get the “Shards connected to the city” bonus for things like the +Lore and + Skill buildings?  I think so although maybe that’s overpowered?

8. Crafting items should not require strategic resources (Horses, Metal, Crystal).  Maybe they can require some rare crafting ingredients but not the strategic resources.  They are rare enough to need them to build advanced troops.

9. What is the Golden Belt (+20 Weight capacity) for?  A “joke” item harkening back to Elemental?

10. Please exclude Administrators and Pioneers from a city defense fight.  Or at least place them way back in the back lines instead of treating them like front line fighters and putting them up front.

11. Sword of Soveriegn only collects mana in a tactical fight.  If you autoresolve a fight you don’t get the mana accumulation from all the kills.

12. And PLEASE, Pikemen don’t swing their weapons, they THRUST.