[Suicide Junkie]

I've been trying the demo lately.

Took me a while to get the first game started, and I promptly got myself killed against the first independent province.

Then I got wounded to uselessness on the next attempt.

Still slogging up the learning curve for the interface, I started to toss other people into battle instead of me...
Worked a little, but the easy AIs started swarming over the hill before I got more than a handful of provinces.

Finally, one on one I got my army marching... The territory I had was useless for production, and in short order, I had 1000's of gold that I couldn't spend as fast as it came in. Hiring mercenaries for more than they asked for, and then throwing them across the map was the name of the game.

Having sent myself and my little smithy guys around searching for treasure while my three armies (two mercs) went stomping to the west for fun and profit, I was making piles of gems and even more money that I couldn't spend.

When I encountered the enemy, I stomped through his empty territories and ganged up on big red X's which I'd recently figured out meant enemy concentrations.
I tried out the defenses, and tossed up 30-35 on four or five provinces near the front lines.
Once I saw what it did, I boosted that to 50-60. (did I mention that I couldn't spend the money I was making as fast as it came in?)

I basically stormed the enemy with conventional forces and was just now managing to gather enough cavalry to form an attack force.

I managed to forge a few trivial magic items, but they never got to see combat use, before I broke through and closed the noose around the enemy home province.

Even without magic, the battles were decent.

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Some comments/questions:
This game could use a tutorial, to lead you through a couple turns and a battle on a tiny map, say.

How does production work? Is there anywhere can I see the progress being made on the multi-turn buildtime units?

Is it possible to move units without a leader between friendly provinces? If not, why do these military warriors need a priest or other guy to hold their hands?