Well, in the absence of any models to show off - after nearly a month :P of waiting for our modeller - I thought I'd just give everyone a general update:
The Map
Well, it's basically finished, including most of the resources and all but two or so of the regions - I've done about 78 of 80 I believe - and now I'm investigating battle-map fog in a bid to make the view distances a bit more Rome-like in terms of visible mountain ranges and the like.
I'm planning out the new building types, only very roughly, and I'm still planning out my settlement maps and such for my additional campaigns, which are all but a certainty now that the Kingdoms expansion has so specifically included the ability to add them.
The Planning
At present most of the planning is done and I'm simply executing it or having it executed by a number of capable team-mates. Further units are a possibility as I plan the additional campaigns, but most will probably be just more basically equipped versions of their future counter-parts.
The Story
My writing of the central plot document - which is a fancy way of saying "that story I'm writing about that guy" - has slowed to a stop with the encroachment of university on to my time, but I occasionally go back to it for revision or addition.
I've been working on the story mainly in the capacity of a historian and I've written a substantial timeline for the Ilsamiri themselves which runs from their arrival on the continent to some one thousand years later with the arrival of the Mekathenain on the Forest Coast and the subsequent war. I'm also considering a massive expansion of the map for some far off project involving conquest or exploration into the vast, uncharted seas.
Well, that's the news for the moment. I hope to be able to show a model shortly - which I know is hardly an impressive boast after so long in development, but that's just the way it goes. I'll have more shots of the map up just as soon as I find someone(/work out how) to do the UI for the campaign map as I don't want vanilla unit flags and models cluttering up my nice new map.
I hope that's been interesting to some people as I know I haven't really posted here since, well, a month ago. Suffice to say, progress is slow, but I think steady, and you can expect a version of the mod in the not-too-distant future - by that I mean late this year, I hope :D .