Update notified by Mod Manager, so it really works!!! 

It doesn't work anymore unfortunately. Thanks for the bug, I wonder where the original description went...

Mostly not my work, for the most part I just imported some models and animations to the game and fixed a couple of quirks. Most of the new monsters are from Ryzom the MMO.

I've finished a couple on large, against 6 and not 8 though.

I'm on an ecomental XXL map right now -  as shadow with 11 opponents - so 12 total.   I'm about to quit since I'm easily winning - 12 cities that are just building buildings/upgrading, all my faction power is coming from the free champions I've picked up.   Lucked out with the "free ophidian" and an "anna" (wolf) - so had 2 long range scouters to pick up free champions.   Now I have 12 champions, an ogre (quest), a set of wilbur's archers,  2x anna and an ophidian.     I've even recently gotten Beorn's so picking up the lvl 9 guys. 

My faction power is 150ish.  I've met 8 other civilizations and the nearest one is about 80.  With the scouters and mounted champions I've seen a high portion of the map and have gotten a lot of the goodie huts.

Fun though, but think the next game I'm going to jack up the difficulty.  I think I was on ridiculous but will re-check.

... post is invalid except for the XXL.  AI easy somehow.  That makes me feel better, going to try the same strat though and see how it does with a bit of fighing.

I have managed to complete several of xxl map games with 8 and more sides other than my custom sov/race and have played to conquest/diplomacy/master quest victorys, but the others were mostly vanilla.

harpo

HF, Vini has a weaker ice spear than the one he should have 6pierce + 2 cold vs 7 pierce + 2 cold. On purpose?

, playing on, is it possible to give a message to the rightside when the animal spirit is completed? just like when the champion notifies it can move again after injury. I usually summon animals when in city to get governing bonus, but I then forgot about him and he stays in city for few turns.

another cloth map issue, gibbai have real small icons on cloth.

by the way, they are creepy, scary, deadly ... plain awesome

Going to give the Elves a try.  Wildlands map, Expert / Dense monsters, Five Expert AI with Stormlord set to Ridiculous.  I do have quite a few mods installed, the list is:  Stormworld, Heroes, Large UI, Riverbridge, Snaking, Swamp Tiles and Summoner Units.  I have never tried a game with the Riverbridge, Swamp Tiles or Summoner units so I am curious as to what they do.

The game magically gave me a 4/3/2 tile with forest and a river, so hallelujah!  My starting hero is Othello, a good hero but kind of boring since I've seen him so many times before.  I was hoping for one of Heavenfall's new heroes to add variety.  On the plus side I can possibly grow him into a fearsome fire-based nuker, something the Elves are normally forbidden.

Faction Notes:

• I really like the faction symbol the Elves are using.  A river through the forest, looks nice.
• +0.6 mana per turn from my two-essence city is a good thing.
• Right off the bat I miss the Logging Camp.  This is a thematic penalty of the Elven race, but it is also a big negative to city production.
• I notice that Sowien is getting +0.7 attack from her racial traits with the Ignys longbow, and that this is rounded up to +1.  I will need to check and see if +.3 rounds up as well.  On the down side she is getting -10 init from the thing.  As my first trait I choose Strength, reducing this to only -8.
• The early game is very easy with the Warg + Ignys bow.
• Easy movement through forests is nice.
• Sowien is a Summoner.  I dislike the Summoner trait, as I think it's near worthless due to the lack of available summoned creatures. 
• The Pioneer units look like nuns wearing their traditional habit.  It's the hairstyle.
• Reindeer are interesting.  Less dodge than a warg, but more initiative.  Overall just better.  I do wish the faction had a use for wargs though, the only thing that really matters is horses to turn into reindeer.
• Once I started to crank out mounted staff wielders life was over for my opponents.

Misc Notes:

• My starting position is near Curgen's Tomb, in the NW corner of the map.  Should be interesting.
• My initial nearby quest was one from the 'Heroes' mod and netted me Brashear.  Neat!  I did note a few typos in the quest though, such as 'any more violence', and 'eradicated'.  I also note Brashear has no unit wage cost.  This is probably an oversight, but is very handy in the early game when money can be extremely tight.  Passing this on to the actual mod maker.
• My second early quest is also a 'Heroes' mod one, for Mouse.  Misc typo 'peeking through'.
• There are no expansion sites nearby.  Urgh.  I finally find one I can get to, and it is 17 squares from my starting position.  Eventually I get the city growth cycle going but it took a long time before I could begin.
• I had a lot of 'Adventurers screwed up' events, they were a lot of fun. 

It was removed in Vanilla FE a few patches ago. You can reactivate it by going into data/English/CorePlayerAbilities.xml and changing the defaultvalue of this

  <PlayerAbilityType InternalName="A_Additive_ResearchPerPopulation">
    <DisplayName>Base Research Per Population</DisplayName>
    <Description>How much research each unit of population produces in a city.</Description>
    <Icon>Icon_Level.png</Icon>
    <DefaultValue>0.0</DefaultValue>
  </PlayerAbilityType>

Thanks for the feedback ManiiNames. I personally think the Summoner is worth it, but you have to focus all your heroes on summoning to make it worthwhile. It is a decision that affects your whole gamestyle, as the sovereign histories should be.

centaurs: when you cast animal spirit, and get attacked after one turn you'll have the animal in the stack - it should appear one or two turns later. 

EDIT: might have been wrong, maybe it were two turns of being immobile.... I'll test it again