I have to admit to being a bit lost regarding some of the early game SC concerns due to lack of details.
I've experimented with a Niefelheim SC Bless race (see Niefelheimn thread) with the Earth mother Earth 9, nature 9 and my experiances don't fit the picture being painted. My blessed, sacred Niefel Giants die with great ease fighting any troops capable of dealing out alot of damage. Remember they have prot +4, berserk 3, regeneration and reinvigoration - yet they get slaughtered by Knights! The Earth Mother is very vunerable without magic items - slowing down her usage and making her researching ability tempting.
Don't get me wrong this race is very nasty, perhaps broken, but then I'm hoping to find I can do some pretty over the top things with Heart Companions and Sacred Serpents . . . so I'm not sure that SC is the central issue.
Have I been really unlucky or are people somewhat inflating their stories of successes with super combatents? Do people go back to copied files to avoid the disasters I encounter when I'm too aggressive with SC's?
I would like to here detailed accounts of games in which people played with no backed up turns and to hear of the things that went wrong as well as those that go right. I worry at the thought that the game balence might be altered by people saying "I wasted the AI using the SC abuse isn't it pathetic?" I require more detail before I find this convincing and I think the problems with the AI have more to do with the light/heavy issues and the desire to not have the AI "cheat" - I wish they would at least pick on me playing impossible.
I'm no idiot and I find it easy enough to lose super combatents - always have. Even ID's with a heap of magic items which took a pile of gems, heaps of searching . . . and in Dom I I lost my first 2 (PBEM) ones against 30 Tritons! Go figure - nothing anybody said prepared me for that one but the heat of my dominion (Abysia) in the seas was enough to overwhelm all that investment.
So please Johan don't go making changes because people are making complaints lacking detailed backing. I certainly don't know enough to make definitive statements at this point and I doubt anyone who wasn't invovled in the development is in a different position. As such views of people responding to the demo should not be given too much weight - myself included
Cheers
Keir