I played the game quite a few times at a friend's house before buying it myself a couple weeks ago. One of my favorite parts was the "OH ISH" moments when the world would belch spawn points all over the place. There was a notification of it in your turn messages "Rogue populations have boomed across the world" or something similar, and bang, there were neutral Rogue Guilds scattered throughout your empire. When it was Ogres or Treewardens, it could really cause some panic. In the 50 or so hours I've put in since buying it, I haven't seen this once. Was this disabled in a patch? I also moved up to Impossible, so maybe it's just the lower difficulties? That wouldn't make much sense, but it's the only thing I'm doing differently.