[happygeek]

Thank you all very much so far. GOod stuff! I am back for more!

1. I had a mage cast Call of the Winds in a distant province X. Same turn, I commanded three small sneaky armies to combine forces and attack that province X. One army was in X that turn, 2 armies moved to X from adjacent enemy provs that turn -- at least I think that's the case. What surprises me and what I dont understand is this: There were TWO battles. First, a "magic" battle -- but one of my sneaky armies joined in! Then, later, near the end of the turn, there was another battle, where the two sneaky armies that did not join the first one did battle. Help! I dont get it. I would understand it if (a) ONLY the hawks fought, then all three of my sneakers would fight, or (b) ALL of the armies plus the hawks would fight (what I was hoping for -- I had never tried this before!). But sadly, c was the result, and I dont know why. Can anyone explain?

2. Can anyone tell me what settings are kind of "standard" for MP games? I would like to get used to them. For this reason, I currently play SP with CBM and Better Independents Mod, hoping that is "standard". And I turn Renaming On. (Why is Off default? Cant imagine playing wthiout it.) What else is standard? Do people leave gold, resoruce, magic and research settings alone? What about independent strength? Are score graphs left on or turned off? THANK YOU.

Darn I had a lot more questions saved but I forgot them -- ill be back!
thank you