Indy commanders with magic items

[Twan]

The chances of looting an item are based on its rarity and I think the same no matter who carried the item. The item you mentioned is an artifact so you should had a big chance of looting it (I think 80%), and probably very bad luck. Note that looting an item if all your present commanders can't equip it is also impossible (so a 2 hander can't be looted if all the remaining commanders have a 1 or 2 hand weapon).

[Hullu]

Aye, I was considering the possibility of being full slots-wise. But I checked and I had at least two commanders left that could have wielded it.

So the indies DO drop their magic items, and I've just had bad luck is all? Okies...

[Hullu]

Oh, and by the way.

Are there many kinds of indie provinces with extreme defenses like that? I've seen that particular province in two different games, but I don't recall seeing anything coming even close to the destructive power of those two cyclopses...

[Tyrian]

No that sort of defence is very rare on the standard map.