I've played this DLC for the better part of 4 years. Don't listen to the folks telling you it is too fast paced or that the AI is too aggressive. They are playing the game as if it hadn't changed at all and it has, a lot. For those of you considering adding this to your MoM experience. please remember that it IS a better version of the original game but with all the fixes and changes some aspects will be different. Diplomacy: The biggest change starts here. It works. Diplomatic relations matter throughout the entire game. This opens up many new strategies and empowers the unusable diplomatic retorts (perks for wizards). This is also where I believe many old fans are messing up. Approaching diplomacy the same way as the original MoM will have you at war immediately. How many cities you own, army strength, power, aggressive actions, wizard personalities and many other factors are all taken into account when enemy wizards consider you. For any who aren't convinced there are a few youtube runs up. Sapher's latest run on the hardest difficulty (Lunatic) hinged on an early game alliance to gain a foothold. Magic: Massive changes here too. You'll notice some redundant spells have been removed and replaced with spells that either adhere thematically to the school or offer something new. Other's have been changed to better fit the time you'll acquire them to help balance various stages of the game. The research cost of spells were adjusted to open up long-play and rushing strategies while synergizing with being able to select researchable spells at spell book thresholds. I often have to think about what spell I want next instead of having a few "go to" spells for each school. I'd go over economy and city building but character limit. Just know that new buildings empower new strategies and time restrictions make summoned units relevant longer. I highly recommend reading the readme to have a better game play experience. Go into this DLC with a fresh mindset and enjoy!
