I just downloaded PoP about a week ago. It's a very love/hate relationship.
I love the mod. The story behind it is phenomenal. The VI is a godsend. I played Native for years and I regret not discovering PoP earlier.
The hate part: the damn VI slaughters me in many instances. I must've started a new character at least 8 times before being able to actually keep an army. It's ridiculous. Early in the game, you stroll along with like 80 troops thinking, "Finally, I can participate in a campaign in a serious way." And as if the gods have heard your thoughts, out of nowhere appears a giant Jatu army of 700 men, which would be avoidable were it not for the smaller, much faster Jatu patrol, which I am too slow to avoid because I'm carrying a load of cheap iron to sell elsewhere. In Native, if you have 100 men and you're faced with 800, you can somehow pull it off. There's at least a glimmer of hope. Not with Vicky behind the wheel.
Whatever, I lost my army, I can just recruit them back. Nope. Because the whole map is crawling with forest bandits and deserters. And I get captured like a dozen times before I somehow manage to avoid all the bloodthirsty bandits and recruit enough people to actually scare them off.
Despite all the hair pulling frustration, PoP is amazing and has me completely captivated. Kudos to the dev team and the many semesters of students. Can't wait for 4.0, although I should probably focus on beating 3.0
