Here's the latest update, with a mix of new content and a new iteration of the battle resolution system with some pretty big changes. There are also bug fixes and various tweaks - thanks to everyone who reported issues, it is always very helpful and much appreciated.

Patch Notes

• New battle resolution engine. Based on the existing internal simulation and mechanics from the previous iteration, but taking a somewhat more abstract view of the battlefield. The armies are arrayed in lines of battle, and the abstraction of position and movement makes it possible to better implement the effects of reserves, flyers, skirmishers, etc. Casting spells and using other abilities is also easier to manage. It is also a more robust foundation to build on. Embedding narrative elements and more mechanics than simply taking turns at making attacks is still priority. The real-time AI-based resolution was certainly entertaining at times (admittedly often due to bugs or AI stupidity), but failed to give much traction to those stated goals.
• Deployment during battles can now be changed by the player. Enemy unit count will be shown, but the details hidden until after deployment.
• Some units can be deployed as skirmishers, which allows them to reduce the fighting ability of the enemy. Once the lines clash, the skirmishers will fight at reduced effectiveness themselves. Whether the enemy reduction is greater than the loss depends on skirmish ability (determined from attributes and abilities, the calculation is shown in a tool tip). In future updates skirmishing casualties and battle phase flow changes will be implemented.
• A maximum number of units can fight in the main battle line at once. The remainder are in reserve and will join the battle line if/when other units retreat or are destroyed. Future updates will expand on this and allow better control of when/how reserves join the fight.
• Unit effects are now shown as small icons on the unit panel. Hovering over an icon will show the effects in a tool tip.

• Tribal Destiny: Bravery changed from +3 Courage, +1 Shock (infantry) to +2 Courage, +1 Shock (infantry)
• Tribal Destiny: Thirst for War added to the Warfare path. It gives +1 Melee Skill, +1 Discipline and +50% Veteran Warrior gain from battles.
• Tribal Destiny: No Retreat added to the Valor path. It gives +3 Courage, prevents voluntary battle-wide retreat (individual units can still break and retreat), and is mutually exclusive with Feigned Retreat. Lost defensive battles with no survivors give +1 Tribal Destiny and +1 Prestige per three full units in the battle (up to +5).
• Tribal Destiny: Caravan Guards added to the Prosperity path. It gives 100 Gold per turn for each settlement located adjacent to or in a province where the chief has a camp. Negated if the settlement is besieged or the owner is hostile.
• Clan Trait: Wolf Packs added. One unit of Giant Wolves can be recruited from camps belonging to these clans. Only possible if culture has Beast Tamers, Pact with Nature or Animal Affinity: Wolves.
• Clan Trait: Ghoul Packs added. One unit of Ghouls can be recruited from camps belonging to these clans. Only possible if culture is not aligned towards good and has Necromancy. It can be generated in a few other rare cases.
• Clan Trait: Cavalry Slayers added. Infantry units from these clans have the Anti-Cavalry ability.
• Clan Trait: Monster Slayers added. Regular, scout and elite units from these clans have the Monster Slayers ability.
• Gaining control of a clan will now transfer control of their camps.
• Losing control of a clan will now cause control of their camps to be lost (to the new controller or the clan itself).
• If relations with a controlled clan drop below -5, control will be lost. If control was gained through conquest, relations cannot cause loss of control for the first 8 turns, with the chance of loss increasing by 5% cumulatively each turn thereafter.
• Clan traits are now color-coded to make it more obvious if they are positive (green), negative (red), diplomacy-related (yellow) or other/multiple (orange).
• Clans are now less likely to have multiple strictly positive traits.
• Clans are now more likely to have at least one strictly positive trait.

• New Battle Spell: Cloak of Shadows. Prevents ranged attacks and use of the Inspiring ability, but provides Ranged Avoidance. Provides target unit with 85% protection against attacks while retreating during battle. Must be researched and requires (Shadow 3, War 1, Warding 1) or Shadow 5.
• Dispel Magic can now be used during battles. Cost is 5 mana, and it will remove a random dispellable non-negative effect from an enemy unit or a random dispellable non-positive effect from a friendly unit. It will not dispel multiple effects like the world version, but it will prefer strictly negative/positive effects before ambiguous ones.
• New Unit Type: Phantasmal Warriors. Unlocked by Illusion 2. Effective against high armor as they deal arcane+true damage, but vulnerable to radiant/dark damage. Resistance to physical attacks via semi-corporeal and ranged avoidance, but still quite fragile with no armor and low hit points. Abilities: Fearless, Mindless, Ambush. Cheap and fast to summon, but with high upkeep.
• New Unit Type: Phantasmal Riders. Unlocked by Illusion 3. Very fast and effective against high armor as they deal arcane+true damage. Vulnerable to radiant/dark damage. Resistance to physical attacks via semi-corporeal and ranged avoidance, but still quite fragile with no armor and low hit points. Abilities: Fearless, Mindless, Relentless Pursuit. Cheap and fast to summon, but with high upkeep.
• New Unit Type: Phantasmal Drakes. Unlocked by Illusion 4. Flying unit with several attacks dealing arcane+true damage. Vulnerable to radiant/dark damage. Resistance to physical attacks via semi-corporeal and ranged avoidance, less fragile than other phantasmal units, but still much less hardy than comparable monstrous creatures. Fearless and Mindless. Cheap and fast to summon, but with very high upkeep.
• New Unit Type: Phantasmal Champions. Research requires Illusion 5 and one of: Light 2 OR Order 2 + Light 1 OR War 2 + Light 1. Highly skilled infantry unit with high arcane+radiant+true damage. Vulnerable to dark damage. As other phantasms fragile with no armor and low hit points. Abilities: Fearless, Inspiring, Mindless. Cheap and fast to summon, but with very high upkeep.
• New Unit Type: Phantasmal Horrors. Research requires Illusion 5 and one of: Dark 2 OR Chaos 2 + Dark 1 OR Death 2 + Dark 1. Monstrous unit with high arcane+dark+true damage and a ranged attack. Vulnerable to radiant damage. Despite decent hit points and toughness, still mostly fragile with no armor. Abilities: Fearless, Unsettling, Mindless, Amphibious. Cheap and fast to summon, but with very high upkeep.

• Added a Mods option to the main menu.
• Mods are created by adding a folder in the /Mods/ folder.
• Unit icons can be replaced by putting replacements in a UnitIcon folder below the Mod folder. A list of valid icon ids can be found in the documentation (soon).
• The interface for managing, creating and editing mods will be improved.

• You can now choose to leave a city, and neither conquer/raze/sack it.
• Local defenders rallying to defend against pillaging can now include militia in addition to irregulars and mercenaries. The unit size of these militia and irregulars has been given a random component.
• Martial and Decadence will now affect the garrison size for neutral cities.
• Cities with Crime 2+ will field temporary defender units during assaults. The number and quality depends on culture and city Crime, Prosperity, Martial attributes.
• City defenders are now much less likely to include cavalry.
• Wizard AI now has a slightly stricter limit on how many units to queue up when it has a resource surplus.
• Warlord AI is now better at handling threats to it's sites.
• AI is now better at recognizing threats when friendly/hostile sites are within a few hexes.
• Zombies have been changed from having a default unarmed attack to having two attacks: Bite and Clumsy Pummel. They're relatively weak, so the mana cost has been lowered accordingly.
• Increased variety for the Tribe, Horde, Clan name generators.
• Custom Wizard templates can now be given a description.
• The Character/Followers window now has better color coding of tool tip enabled text.
• The Character/Followers window now shows details on aging/life cycle (if relevant) as a tool tip on the age attribute.
• Fixed tooltips not working correctly for some neutral/marauder armies.
• Fixed a number of issues, including a crash bug, caused by splitting units in the Army window.
• Fixed Dispel Magic always failing to target valid army targets, even if they have dispellable effects.
• Fixed Dispel Magic incorrectly being applied to all effects, instead of only exempting those indicated in the description (ie positive/negative based on target being friendly or not).
• Fixed buffs/debuffs of Faction luck not correctly being applied.
• Fixed display of site Fortification values in some places not including stat modifiers.
• Fixed the Incite Unrest spell sometimes incorrectly changing Unrest if stat modifiers are in place.
• Fixed an issue where neutral minor realms could build sites in hexes with no room for them.
• Fixed the invisible parts of the notification container blocking map input.
• Multiple weapon-based melee attacks can now only be used if the unit has the Dual Wield ability.
• Fixed armies not always minimizing correctly on the map when loading or starting a game.
• Fixed an army sigil overlap issue with multiple armies in the same hex.
• Fixed some unit templates resolving incorrectly during world generation.
• Trade Posts now show the correct income estimate.
• Fixed an issue preventing the AI from using many spells during battles.
• Fixed an issue with some tool tips for the outliner being overly verbose.