Any good tips for starting out?

[kongxinga]

Hmm, I will try the half half technique and see how it works.

Stacking the sub commander leader with the lord often means the difference between no casualties and 2-3 dead units because of the damage soak and additional firepower.

When I tried sending my sub commander out flagging resources, after 3-4 turns a large neutral stack frequently ganks him. That's 60 or so gold down the drain for maybe a +6 gold cash flow. Pretty bad trade. That's how I started putting him with the lord.

My citadel often dies to those huge roaming brigand stack, but leaving enough forces to deter that will leave my main stack to weak to kill anything. Does this happen to anyone else?

I tried the warlock and he is way cheesy. Capture mines, take cities, and watch the gems flow in. In fact all factions with more than 1 resource (ie gold and fungus, gold and sacrifice) seem much more powerful than the factions with one resource, except for the necromancer, who has a very difficult start.

Do all factions eventually get 2 free leaders? I tried the troll King, and after a few turns you would get a funny surprise. I won't spoil it, but it is hilarious. Even the agarthans get a new leader sometime into the game.

[capnq]

kongxinga said: My citadel often dies to those huge roaming brigand stack, but leaving enough forces to deter that will leave my main stack to weak to kill anything. Does this happen to anyone else?

I routinely leave a garrison of only two missle and two melee units in a citadel, and it hardly ever gets attacked. Maybe I just don't have the difficulty set high enough.

I think the most critical thing is to seize a second citadel as soon as possible. You only need to hold one to stay in the game. (Just to make sure I'm being clear, I'm using "citadel" to mean any fortification that lets you recruit troops, not just the big ones that each player starts with.)