Unfortunately I chose Chaos as my first race. The game really requires a patch because entering level 1 encounters with a weak army is not fun when you find a level 8 epic pegasus. This is clearly a bug and I'm surprised it has not been officially fixed. Luckily I did find an unofficial patch by Ascension64.... I don not like using unofficial patches though. Please fix this GoG.
I also loved Lords of the Realm 2. I played it and played it and then played it some more. This game was nothing like 2..... not even close. The whole real time thing just makes it unplayable since map time continues during battle time. I was very angry after buying this game.I promptly returned it. I still own my original copy of LotR 2....