OK, here is what I have found so far after a couple of hours playing over the past couple of days:
- There are now five civilizations, and each has (I think) at least two enemies. The map is arranged so that the civs are more or less all next to at least one enemy.
- The beginning of the game is kind of hard: there are lots of large war parties from different civs, and the bandit parties are big too. It can be tough to start out as a military commander, but the good news is there are other options:
- Trading is more balanced, and also requires some skill on the part of your character. You can get intelligence on places where local goods can be sold at a profit, but it takes some time (you have to run arond the market and collect info I guess), and it depends on trade skill. Also, each town has limited amounts of cash, so you can't just buy up all of the most valuable stuff and dump it somewhere.
- Raiding and looting villages is a big part of the game now... you can attack villages (basically gives you a village combat map and you fight a huge mob of farmers... unless an NPC party is staying there, then they will join in). I haven't done this much, but I can tell that this is probably the best way for a relative newcomer to make cash and build up rep, until you are able to attack enemy military units. You can also just extort supplies form the village, though they don't always give you stuff. If a village has been looted, it will turn into a burnt-out ruin with no loot (but eventually recover, I think). A character with maybe 20 soldiers, some points in prison management, etc. could make a decent haul from loot and slaves this way I think. THe problem is, NPC parties are constantly looting the villages too, so it can be hard to find a fresh one.
- tactical commands are much better, and more precise than in the previous game. You can tell your troops to spread out, to bunch together, and to advance/retreat 10 paces. Not only this, but they tend to line up in orderly lines now. It is much easier to command them and use battle tactics than in previous versions, IMO.
- I think that combat has been tweaked, but I am not sure how. Horses may be a bit more agile now, but accelerate more slowly.. or I might simply be imagining things.
- NPCs are a big part of the game now. If you want to join a faction, you have to find out where the king of the country is... sometimes he might be out pillaging, other times in one city or another. You can figure out where he is easily enough by asking an NPC from his country. I also saw a "ransom broker" who apparently pays money for prisoners of high status, so now you can do more with prisoners than just sell them to slavers. No doubt you can get some good cash from a captured NPC, but I haven't gotten to that point yet.
- recruiting can be tougher than in previous versions, and more expensive.
- There are lots of joinable NPCs in taverns, etc. They don't ahve stories, but they have special skill sets, etc.
Like I said before, the game is more and more like Pirates!, which is a good thing.
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