I'm playing on campaign mode, fighting against 2 Masters and a Local Lord on an Average shard with some juicy building schematics as my reward.

After defeating all but one Master, whom I've pushed all the way to their stronghold, a message box suddenly pops up. I accidentally clicked one of the options without looking at the box and am suddenly taken to the Victory screen.

Or at least, I thought it was the victory screen. Initially, I thought maybe the Master surrendered (no idea they were capable of that). Then my heart sank when I realized what really happened. I was defeated.

I thought to myself: How?! How did this happen? His heroes were dead, he only had two or three provinces left. How did I lose? And then I realized what that pop-up box earlier truly was: An inquisitor claimed my stronghold as their holy land and attacked it when I had foolishly removed guards from it to save costs earlier in the game.

I am now sulking in my corner.

I know the feeling :(. I, too, learnt the hard way about leaving my stronghold defended by at least 1 unit. I've also been caught out thinking garrisoned units would join my hero if my province was attacked, only to find him alone on the battlefield.

I *think* the AI Masters (Not the local lords, but the other Masters) might be able to surrender, but if it's on their own accord or via Diplomacy I do not know.

"Our enemies have been destroyed, and I'm giving you this Shard as a token of our friendship."



As for the Inquisitors taking over your capitol when you were on the verge of victory? Yeah, that's happened to me before too ^_^
I had guards - a team of adventurers - and a ton of Lizardmen inside, and the adventurers were killed off but the remaining Inquisitors were mopped up by my reptiles =P
Unfortunately, they tried again not seven turns later, this time killing both my guards and my garrison...

That´s why I always let the inquisition kill the "sinners". It´s just to annoying to have them take your rear when your (strong) heroes are at the front.

I feel your pain. I figured I'd refuse the "let us burn random people in your villages" request they made and so they declared holy war on me, at least once every 3 turns they'd attack somewhere until I had guards in every province. But that slowed my income so the AI came in and consumed my empire. I sent my hero out, pushed the AI all the way back to their stronghold... and got jumped by inquisitor forces in my own unguarded capital.... I guess that's what I get for not letting them burn the serfs.

On a related note, I actually enjoy how unforgiving this game is (it hurts too, don't get me wrong, but it's the challenge that makes it satisfying to me)

*At least one* yes, as that will force the AI to sit there wasting turns with siege rather than "Oh hey I killed your guard, now your province is mine trololol"

However, in my experience the higher leveled AI seems to be a bit smarter in that they don't need to waste 4 to 8 turns sieging down every last bit of your wall just to kill a single militiaman, whereas Beginner AI have yet to disappoint me in having their souped up level 20 Dark Knight be that cautious =P
The Masters on the other hand... Siege a lot quicker it seems. They tend to realize that single unit that could never hurt them in a hundred years isn't worth breaking down the entire wall for, and Assault the moment they can =/

I didn't think they ever waited to siege all the walls down, guess I have to pay more attention to wall status to test it. I thought it was because of the highher siege attribute of stronger heroes that it goes faster.
On shard 11 or so the enemy had a level 20 Battlemaster with 9 Centaurs! He took down any outpost in one or two turns, it was fairly annoying.

Well I'm playing on beginner, which is difficult enough for me as it is.

My 11th shard I haven't seen anyone with that sort of group, but I've come pretty danged close with a guy running around with a Minotaur, Thugs, Assassins, and being all Ghoul-happy with his spells.

I've just noticed Local Lords will often have the best units they can buy at the time, then just sit there until the wall is dust before moving in most of the time. Masters (Oiron mostly, since he's the only freaking Master I can make it to) will often siege much sooner.

I havent seen such a strong hero again since then, and minotaurs in a hero army only a few shards later, thats on the third level, so maybe the diff doesnt influence the opponents that much, just your own progression.
So... high level Commander hero and Centaur alliance=bad news. I could only win, because my main man was a Wizard and I had found Mass Terror with which I could basically take 6 centaurs and the hero out of the fight. There are some really awesome level 3 and 4 spells.

Seems like it. In the var folder the Difficulty settings have this:
/0
Name: Beginner;
Start gold: 1000
Start gem: 100
Gold income add: 15
Gem income add: 5
Population: 1100
Exp mod: 80
Loot mod: 110
Neutral HP: 55
Corruption start: 18
Corruption max: 60
Hero advice: 1
Score: 25

From there the Exp and Loot mod get lower as the difficulty goes up, as does the Gold/Gem income. I guess the AI operates with the same programming and stuff on all difficulty choices, and the Difficulty level only handicaps you?
Is different than HoMM and Civilization then, where lower difficulties limit the choices the AI can make (Like retreating in battle) and they make more dumb decisions than on higher levels (Like assaulting a castle full of dragons with a level 1 hero. Always a good laugh when they try and pull that off.)

also the starting gold is decreased (the main reason why i haven't increased the difficulty) - oh and the HP of neutrals is increased
for the AI - if he is playing as beginner it is like the hardest difficulty for players and with him being the hardest he gets the benefits of the player beginner difficulty
as far as i understood it - it does not affect the behavior
even on beginner - the enemy only assaulted me if he was pretty sure of his victory
but in tactical battles he sometimes is stupid - just turn on auto battle instead of quickbattle and you will see - e.g. the AI send my squad of fairies (all with healing) on the frontline to make some useless shots and then get slaughtered - while i just keep them in the back - hasting my guardsmen and healing them
anyhow i developed a new love for fairies and guardsmen under a commander - with the increased hp and defense from his skills they are practically immortal - guardsmen gain first strike after a while and unless the enemy has really good ranged units he can only suicide into the wall of guardsmen or attack my unicorn that has the medals of honor ^^ (or my even more badass treant - stonehenge is an awesome building)
but i get off topic

Haven't guardsmen have like 9 of ranged defense? And that's only starting stat. It's pretty hard to damage them with arrows or bolts.

Guardsmen are so nice, but I hate that 1 Speed stat. Not in battle (Haste, yay!), but for overland movement of the army...

well thats why i use them on a commander - the plus 2 mobility is just awesome for noncombat movement

oh and the ranged attack weren't bad for the guardsmen but for my faeries (well
having the dragon pennant - +7 hp for the squad took care of that - and the natural high ranged defense of faeries is rather nice=