The number in brackets that is shown near the name of a party is its strength.
Thats not the actual number of troops but the overall "power level"- that is a combination of the number and strength of troops in that party. For the final game we want to give the player some other clue to the strength of a party without showing an actual number like this. If you think of heroes of might and magic the power of an enemy troop was displayed in the description like "horde" or "few" or something along those lines. We will probably go down that way.
The number with the "R:" in front is the number of resources that the party has plundered or is transporting. You will see that on caravans and supply trecks but also on raiders. These resources will be added to the resource count of the location this party is bringing the resources to.
@ragnar
I can feel your concern and that is why we do not use a full "randomization" but procedural generation. Everything that we create has to follow certain rules so that it makes sense within the game world - be it the worldmap, tactical combat maps or character background stories.
The map being a little empty is true. This is due to the early point in development and we are adding more locations and more variety to the environment all the time. HoMM is a great inspiration with its packed and exciting maps where you would find something new and interesting at every corner but i think our worldmap will end up with a little more space between points of interest
Regarding the field of view we are thinking about giving you a shared field of view with friendly locations like villages or so to give you a better idea on whats going on in the world.