Alright, so that's two yays. (That is a yay, right DG?
)
While I agree the AI is shoddy at what it does, it will be an entirely different way to view your setup and strategy, as you've pointed out. Wise distribution of your limited amount of gold in all aspects of the battlefield will be the most important part of it.
I'm hoping that there were some tweaks to the AI (or, if I will be able to tweak the battle AI) to make it where they can at least use all the resources available to them. The AI in KB could not use invisibility, for example. Does this mean that it absolutely cannot use it, even if they have it? Who's to say it won't if I give it the spell? Won't know until I test.
Also, I've been considering special rules outside the limitations of the game, but for balance purposes I cannot say what will actually be included in the tournament (or any tournament in the future). No leadership limit, for example (This would allow you to have complete control over how many units you want) this little change could really help in sculpting your army the way you want it to be.
However, of course, on paper this looks good, but in practice this could lead to horrendous balance issues. Let's say someone hordes black dragons and has hundreds of them, will they have a fair fight against someone who more reasonably spread out his funds investing in spells, various unit types, and items?
Another idea to expand on is actually using your gold to buy various other benefits. One idea I had is buying barricades and placing them where you wish before the battle begins (you would have to communicate this with me so I can set it up appropriately, of course), or purchasing beehives and putting them near the enemy army so they can take some stingers to the face.
I'm open for any other ideas that anyone may have, by the way. As I've said, this is just a test-thread to see if we can actually get a group and have a tournament.
And just to clarify, I
will be posting videos of the battles.