I find the Extreme and Impossible levels on this to be... well Impossible. Just because it's called impossible doesn't mean that it should be impossible or else there is no point to play it at all.
It seems like the AI advantages are too heavily front loaded. I think it would be better if the AIs had less of an initial advantage and got more advantages over time.
After trying several games on Extreme (which I assume is not as hard as Impossible) I've given up on that entirely.
In basically every game by the time I'm building my first Marketplace I'm getting invaded by huge stacks of higher level units. It's truly impossible. When all I have is a Swordsman and Spearman, fighting off a 9 unit stack of Hell Hounds or Gouls can't be done. Even if all I did was pump spearmen starting on turn 1 and summon as many of my own Hell Hounds as possible it couldn't be done, so I see no point.
Being invaded with 4 units Gorgons while building my first Farmer's Market with only a Spearman and Sworsdman, again, impossible.
It seems like the only way to have any chance on these levels is to get super lucky on your starting position to be on a large island all alone or with just neutrals, and unless you have that start then there is no way to even begin the game. And unfortunately it takes several turns to figure out if you have that start, so even just starting and restarting doesn't work.
I had one game with Halflings that I thought was going to be perfect. My starting city had Gold, Mithril, and a Deer. On turn 1 I set to build a Granary, I converted all gold to mana, put all magic power to mana, and cast 2 Magic Spirits. Explored and found a close Phantom Warriors Node and a close Hell Hounds Node. Found several easy to mid level encounters nearby. Found a neutral Nomad city that would be easy to conquer. I was playing Life Halflings to try and get one of the easiest starts going. Thought, okay, this should work.
By the time I was building my Marketplace waves of Hell Hounds starting showing up. Tauron greeted me. Within a few turns he got angry, even though I brought my Magic Spirits in and stopped scouting. He took over both nodes before I had built my first unit and starting building settlers right on top of me, then declared war and crushed me before my Farmer's Market was finished. I think when the game ended he had 5 or 6 cities that I could see and multiple 9 stacks of Swordsmen, Shamen, and Hell Hounds.
All I did was try to build straight Granary, Marketplace, Farmer's Market. Before I could even do that, without building a single troop, he had completely taken over my area, done all the encounters, taken all the nodes and attacked my capital. He had even taken a node that had "many Air Elementals". Seriously, Rare summons being killed before I can even build a Farmer's Market with one of the best starts possible with one of the best races possible?
That's just crazy.
It seems like the AI advantages are too heavily front loaded. I think it would be better if the AIs had less of an initial advantage and got more advantages over time.
After trying several games on Extreme (which I assume is not as hard as Impossible) I've given up on that entirely.
In basically every game by the time I'm building my first Marketplace I'm getting invaded by huge stacks of higher level units. It's truly impossible. When all I have is a Swordsman and Spearman, fighting off a 9 unit stack of Hell Hounds or Gouls can't be done. Even if all I did was pump spearmen starting on turn 1 and summon as many of my own Hell Hounds as possible it couldn't be done, so I see no point.
Being invaded with 4 units Gorgons while building my first Farmer's Market with only a Spearman and Sworsdman, again, impossible.
It seems like the only way to have any chance on these levels is to get super lucky on your starting position to be on a large island all alone or with just neutrals, and unless you have that start then there is no way to even begin the game. And unfortunately it takes several turns to figure out if you have that start, so even just starting and restarting doesn't work.
I had one game with Halflings that I thought was going to be perfect. My starting city had Gold, Mithril, and a Deer. On turn 1 I set to build a Granary, I converted all gold to mana, put all magic power to mana, and cast 2 Magic Spirits. Explored and found a close Phantom Warriors Node and a close Hell Hounds Node. Found several easy to mid level encounters nearby. Found a neutral Nomad city that would be easy to conquer. I was playing Life Halflings to try and get one of the easiest starts going. Thought, okay, this should work.
By the time I was building my Marketplace waves of Hell Hounds starting showing up. Tauron greeted me. Within a few turns he got angry, even though I brought my Magic Spirits in and stopped scouting. He took over both nodes before I had built my first unit and starting building settlers right on top of me, then declared war and crushed me before my Farmer's Market was finished. I think when the game ended he had 5 or 6 cities that I could see and multiple 9 stacks of Swordsmen, Shamen, and Hell Hounds.
All I did was try to build straight Granary, Marketplace, Farmer's Market. Before I could even do that, without building a single troop, he had completely taken over my area, done all the encounters, taken all the nodes and attacked my capital. He had even taken a node that had "many Air Elementals". Seriously, Rare summons being killed before I can even build a Farmer's Market with one of the best starts possible with one of the best races possible?
That's just crazy.