Birthright: Chimaeron

It seems that somebody found a rule which will win a game in using it exclusively as strategy:

Don' t you think that auto scout function from elves is to overpowered- not really clear why elves without extra gb/training should be faster moving through high mountains then karambul, who are living there knowing every niche and way.

You can´t really fight an army who are able to move away as soon they are attacked.
They are able to attack anywhere without other races able to amass an army fast enough... so all others will be bancrupt if they try, because they need an big army in every province to avoid the defeat or castles and roads on all borders which is impossible in turn 10 of a game like this?
I am not for changing rules in mid game, but for karambul wizards it was possible to delete magic save bonus in mid game in spite of not having a highh impact on game. This elven scout rule is just unbelievable....

Well, Sidhe units are better in all. Period..,). Same cost, huge bonus to archers, and can build from T1, that isw why sidhe and half sidhe are so popular. I think half of the human kingdoms are really half-sidhe..,)

I think the scouting ability is just to powerful. An elven archer can run 12 provinces in a turn. What the scounting ability should look like is that you can enter any province no matter what the movement cost and stop there if no more movement is available but not run through multiple difficult terrain provinces.

They grow slower than everyone except possibly karamhul though. Thats a pretty big downside in this sort of a game, starting from scratch. And for the build with wood only, I think maybe it should be max 0 guild to do that. Hurts more financially.

Personally, I think dwarfs should have the same, but in their case limited to mountains.

Simple, elegant, logical, thematical, and most importantly balanced solution is auto scout in Forests only.

It just means that everyone goes back to building only scout-armies. A better solution for long-term viability is to make the "scout" function grant bonus movement not ignore terrain movement cost. An all-scout army of any race can move through all terrain for 1 movement cost as it is anyway.

That too. Could flatten things as Mishrak said.

Scout becomes only the spy adjacent provinces ability and add +2 move to units that had scout.

2 move times 3 war moves times 3 actions. That's 18 provinces per turn, if every war move of every action is used... and no rivers get in the way.

Elven scouts would still have scout movement even if other elven units didn't, of course.

Scout movement is mainly a benefit early on. Halflings also have it, and yet the most powerful realms still have been dominated by humans, game after game, despite humans being the only ones without any racial unit bonuses.

Dwarven armies have advantages, too; they have more morale, a bonus to fight in mountains, but they absolutely need roads, or they can't defend their lands. Dwarven roads in mountains are easy to build, mind.

Worth noting: Even a level 1 fortification makes moving armies past that province without taking the castle impossible. Outright impossible.

As far as thematics go, the idea is that elves are more part of the land than they are inhabitants of it. If elven units were inhibited by a lack of roads, they would have a reason to build roads, which would be out of place. I don't think it would be thematically appropriate to remove the scout movement from elves or halflings. Since dwarves are defensive and focused on artifice in the first place, it seems fair to expect them to rely on built assets.

If elves need to be balanced, they could be given penalties to reflect their lower unit size, or restrictions on build projects to reflect their aversion to building things.