[Alneyan]

The problem, as I see it, is that battles against independents are seldom that exciting: a bunch of infantries charging works well (*heavy* infantry, that is), and so does a mass of archers firing at everything within range, or just a Pretender doing the standard "let's attack a province" job. Alone among all foes, independents do not have to be destroyed: they simply have to rout, and so survavibility is the key to these battles, rather than damage dealing or strategy. Incidentally, that was why I did not start with an elephant expansion: in my experience, those will take too many casualties to be worthwhile, even under Body Ethereal. Still, I will probably develop the elephant part in the "What next?" section: elephants can do the job against a real opponent, where the point is to deal damage, instead of just breaking the foe.

I was also reluctant to delve *too* much into the exact mechanisms of battle: that first chapter is supposed to be an introduction of sorts, with the other chapters being much more thorough with the various parts of the game (Pretender creation first of all). Battle should have its own section, with examples of "real" battles between two foes, where tactics can actually play a part: it would seem more interesting to me to fully describe battles where mages, thugs... are involved, rather than a slugfest of the poor independents.

A "the tools for expansion" annex could work however, with more concrete suggestions on what troops to use to take those provinces, mercenaries... I am reluctant to give too much away on what does work in the explanations themselves though, as some players may prefer to only have an average example, and come up with something better on their own.

Of course, we are also discussing that as already seasoned players. I really wish for more comments from the beginning players themselves, but I guess that's running in circles.