for the life of me, i just can't make a functional economy, i've restarted this game like 20x. i'm playing on hardest difficulty, shang. i try to set up my capital as an economic factory, i settle and grow large cities around it in a circle, i build next to nothing in those cities except for walls. i try to never have an army, and when i do, i cheap out and use peasants, even though i own the expensive buildings like barracks and weaponsmith. i've got a market already. but no matter what i do, i just can't...

surprisingly, my first ever crossbow unit i've recruited are the spear/crossbow soldiers. but im not exactly clear on how to use them. the game tells me that friendly fire is possible with them, and suggests i put them up front. but how does that help, when armies inevitably tangle into a large mess? i can't micro the crossbows to hit far off targets instead. also, i'm unclear on how to use this hybrid unit; if i set it on the typical attack formation, will they move into melee and waste their crossbow? ...

sometimes, my noble horses will become t1 nobles with dagger axes and shields when attacking a settlement. other times, they'll remain as horses, and utterly trample the defenders holding a breach. it seems random. do they still retain their superior cavalry stats, or do they become an inferior unit? i suppose i could use this to my advantage, if i had lots of cavalry against a counter army of spears, i could move them all to my settlement and they would change unit types to beat the spears what are the g...

Update: The game has released, but we are still very much interested in reading your thoughts. Please leave them here :) -Surtur

as shang, the dong yi are notorious for constantly crossing the river and settling into every little crevice they can between my cities. i settle to make maximum radial space for farms, and they plop a terrible 3 radius city ruining my future plans. how do i get rid of the city? i can't attack my own vassal and they refuse to give it up...