Is it just me or does the Crystal of Force always wants you to kill about 10 bowmen?
On Swamp shards this is rather impossible to fulfill in time.

Anyway most of the quests given are nigh impossible to fulfill in any reasonable amount of turns as the amount of killing those units is simply not available.

Good luck killing Ogres for the Centaurs' alliance on a tiny shard cramped with an AI opponent throwing his cheap units after you.

Crystal in current version choses target by weight in surrounding provinces, hidden sites included.
Because of it you can get Elves (common guard in shops),
skellies, goblins and imps are most common enemies.
How to ally centaurs: http://www.gog.com/forum/eador_series/scg_i/post11

For current patch the RNG on crystal quests is bugged. Im getting only bowmen aswell, friend of mine is getting only militiamen and i know more people with this problem. After i instaled beta version of latest patch, im getting random quest again.

Sorry, that was actually my fault. I should have clarified that I'm playing the Broken World version now.

Considering Ogres:
How do achieve draws in combat? Is there a retreat options I haven't found yet?

Draws occur when the combat takes too long. The number of turns is specified in the cfg. In game you get warning messages near the end.

Max battle duration (default 40): 40


I don't think Genesis has Bowmen at all in crystal quests, I never ever got them.

You can get bowmen in forest areas with many brigand outlaws lands = many hidden brigands sites. Though brigands themselves would be more common.

Draw - battle have max 40 turn duration. In these battles with ogres I killed one, then used Fear on second when it was close to my troops. He would panic, run away, calm down, going back, another fear... I find that 2-3 slows instead of one would've been better.
When I attacked second time, there were 2 ogres close together - one with 8 hp, another with 1 morale, so I used magic arrow on 8 hp one, "neighbor dies" gives -1 to morale, free panic:)
In first battle I used fear on first ogre so it wouldn't kill berserks with counterattack, so he was almost scared, then each barb made a hit, got berserk status, then webbed ogre before his turn. Chop-chop-chop... Second ogre was under slow, when he reached me - he got fears.

As I mentioned, I don't like crystal - costs more crystals than half of second hero, and gives random quests, so you would end with wasting turn on moving to specific locations instead of clearing strong guards for actual exp and reward.

Huh, didn't know Crystal picked quests based on surrounding locations....

I love Crystal Quests simply because I'm a gambling addict. I always pick Magic Item too, even if I'm low on gold / crystals for the same reason. Sometimes it pays of big and I get a really nice item, but usually it's something I don't need, or barely better than what I have already.

The God of Crystals really hates Bowmen...

Crystal Upgrade bought for medium quests: Kill 9 Bowmen...

At least he rewards people for doing so.
Paid genocide is better that gratuitous genocide methinks...

Did you by any chance canceled easy quest for bowmen?
Crystal would continue to give canceled quest (prevention from choosing easy quests)

No, not on that Shard.
I'm pretty sure it's somekind of a bug, but I will check when I get to the third crystal for difficult quest and look if I had to kill bowmen again.

Maybe try this: http://www.gog.com/forum/eador_series/some_higher_beings_really_hate_bowmen/post3
After i instaled beta version of latest patch, im getting random quest again.