-Catwalk-

I still think you should go for it 2 players lost or resigned so far, I'm estimating that about half the participants will manage to win the game. There's no shame in losing at the highest level, and you'll learn a bunch about the game when playing a directly comparable game which others reported about. Think about it
I stand by my assessment of 8 points They have the best econ by far and a very powerful unit you can get early on. Even at Regular level it's a powerhouse, units like longbowmen and slingers rely on boosting to reach their full potential. On top of that, they start out with two very strong units of swordsmen which can easily take over a nearby neutral city.
The problem with gnolls (1 point) is that waging a war of attrition will inevitably lead to a loss for you because of the AI's bonuses. Their units are quite decent, they just don't fit in with how games play out. And if you want Wolf Riders, you may as well go for Barbarian Cavalry instead.
Barbarians rank decently on my list with 3 points. +20 growth is a major economic bonus, they have pretty decent access to buildings and two strong units (Cavalry and Berserkers).
I find that the cost of their units tends to cancel out their production bonus. I rank them slightly below Barbarians, 2 points. They're inferior in both economic and military matters.
I put Lizardmen together with Klackons, 2 points. Their economy stinks, but their basic units and Javelineers are very decent. They're obviously a lot stronger on Small land mass than Large. One thing really holding them back is the fact that their settlers are double price rather than normal price like the rest of their units.
I don't rank Dark Elves very high, at least considering that they're Myrran (6 points). Settlers that cost 150 to produce without any economic bonuses are a major setback for your expansion, meaning that you can't take proper advantage of your mana production. Their units are unimpressive, the inherent fireballs are only interesting early on. After that, you'll wish you had normal spearmen for cheap garrison purposes. Nightmare is a weak unit that I won't bother producing (I won't bother with Pegasi either). Having to put up a Fantastic Stable just to get access to them is too rich for me. Keep in mind that fireballs aren't boosted by magic, Mithril and Adamantium weapons. Starting on Myrror means you'll be able to get access to those early on, and you're losing out on that completely.
If you compare a dwarf game with a high elf (I gave them 4 points) game you'll see military dominance much faster with the dwarves. While hordes of longbowmen are cool, it sucks to have enemy wizards eat them up one at a time with spells. Hammerhands are vastly more resistant to that, and longbowmen are only really useful at Elite level. If you go mainly after lairs and neutral towns, longbowmen really shine.
It surprised me that I ended up giving High Men only 3 points. I think this is partly because speed was the objective. You just can't get a fast victory with High Men, until you get Paladins it's a thoroughly unimpressive race. On the other hand you'll always win in the long run, as Paladins are that strong.
Nomads (4 points) are great because of Pathfinding and the fact that their ranged units are fairly sturdy. They lack firepower for going after lairs and nodes, but shine against the AI with speed and sturdiness.
[quote]Trolls, Draconians and Beastmen are somewhere in the middle group - not really amongst the strongest races - but not really weak either.
Have to disagree about Trolls (7 points), regeneration is excessively powerful. It lets you win battles easily by doing tactical retreats all the time, and it ensures that you don't lose troops in battle. Clearly the best rush race, you can attack straight out the gate. Econ stinks, though.
I'm actually planning on rebalancing races to be on the same level for future tournaments. However, if the tournament format (victory conditions and other special conditions) benefits some races more than others I might keep using the cost system for races to some extent.
Nah, everybody started out on Arcanus. Even with a Myrran race. This was done in order to make sure everybody gets the same starting conditions. We used kyrub's 1.4 patch, check it out on dragonsword.com for a full list of features. Most of those concern the internal workings of the game and are for the most part not visible.