[En Forcer]

*Same here. I don't like the race for territories that medium and low Indep strengh result in.*

Since it's a world of turmoil, doesn't it make sense that the globe is peppered with barbarian and civilized kingdoms alike? Honestly, I don't see why there isn't a unique banner and artwork for every single territory. Or have barbarian tribes covering several provinces but that rarely (if ever) go conquer.

*Higher Indep means more chokepoints and strategically interesting situations than just painting the map green (or whatever color).*

Yep. I regularly depend upon buffers of indeps to protect my borders. Nothing like a stack of heavy cavalry, heavy infantry, and crossbowmen led by an indie hero to make the AI think twice.

Since I play with a similar style, what races/pretenders do you usually play with that strategy?

Well, I started with Ulm, and am now on Man, Tuatha theme. For Ulm I had the Lady of Fortune (I love the extra fortune bonus) and of course +3 luck on the scales...made for some beefy random events but production sucked from my +3 turmoil.

Now I have a rainbow sage with 4 in everything. I really dig my Tuatha generals (although horridly expensive) and the bards make excellent scouts. And with 1 nature magic they can provide fire support or research so they don't have to sit on their ***.

My "3rd generation" armies are made up of about 30-40 Vine Ogres and about 50 longbowmen. A couple of these guys and there isn't much that can bother me. Wind Guide and Aim tend to help the longbowmen really well (I don't have easy access to any fire skill mages so Fire Arrows sits unused).

I still have some old school armies with stacks of infantry and militia roaming about.

Hey! Here's a thought. I could copy my save files and you could see what I've done? Just tell me what files to send.

*More fun that way. If the Indeps are too weak the game turns too quickly into WWI with a frontline across the whole map and Somme like meat grinders for battles. I don't like it since it's completely out of character.*

Talk about out of character. I have a high priest who I got from a random event and he sorta fell into being a blood mage, well now I have him summoning fiends and I just don't feel right being nature guy AND summoning demons....

seems un-Tuatha-ish ya know? And I probably shoulda gone with the Lady Tuatha for a Pretender but I REALLY wanted those blessings at the start and didn't want to give up the points....