🚀 go-pugleaf

>On that second and third mission in Ahriman's Gift you mentioned, I
>did the cheat to see the whole map after nearly an hour of fighting.  What I
>saw caused me to quit the scenario and sell the game,,, scores of enemy
>towns, forts, etc.  No chance.  Have the 

This is what happens if you sit on your ass and let the enemy develop
unhindered.

Militarily, I'd say you deserve exactly what you get in that case.

The big difference between AG and the original IS from what I can tell is that
the AI is more focused on building new towns to expand.  The missions
themselves in AG aren't qualitatively different from the ones in IS - the
"tough" aspect is usually that the bad guys start out with some extra units of
tough troops (void beasts, grenadiers, Kohan Elites) - but never overwhelming
numbers of them.  The overwhelming numbers come from the better AI development
of the economy, and consequent numbers of regular units.  Letting the enemy
build up that kind of resource base without having one of your own to match
means you've been wasting time somewhere.

There's one mission in AG where you start with a Gauri town and two Slaanri
villages (no units ready), and the bad guys have about 12 Ceyah villages.  I
managed to capture all but two before encountering any kind of serious
resistance - because I moved fast and didn't ever give the enemy a chance to
recover from a defeat.  No reloads needed.  This is basic stuff.

In IS the AI behaved in a manner that made it not necessary for the player to
build new towns in most missions - you could pretty much just conquer what was
already on the map and make do with that.  This is a weakness in the AI, which
seems to have been rectified.  That's all it is.  If you don't adapt your
thinking to the new behavior, then yes, you're going to have trouble.