[rdonj]

In case you've forgotten the orc mages still don't get any magic/research. Not that I care too much, I was planning on completely ignoring it for the game, but if they got researchers worth buying I might reconsider.

In terms of balance, I would probably consider the galactic empire of ulm the most balanced (of course, I spent by far the most time playing them...). Then R'lyeh, then probably the commonwealth (amazing shields prevent most ranged damage, but they're relatively bad in melee against other factions)... after that it gets a bit hazy, bugs are terrible in space (i.e. most of the map) but pretty devastating on the ground. Orcs are probably next to impossible to kill but low morale and supply issues really hurt them when it comes to taking out others. And then Jomon... Jomon is pretty much the game's super power, I think, but they're not good at sieging and are probably killable by R'lyeh. I wouldn't want to be anyone else and have to kill them by myself though. Hopefully the nerf to the oni is sufficient to keep them from powering through things like they can now.

Btw I don't recall for sure but I think the dai oni has one of those alpha channel issues as well.