hello
i bought age of wonders (only the cd) from ebay and played that.
i played the tutorial and then i want to the campain. i start as the good-ones.
after 6 hours i start the first mission 6 times and everytime i fail.
in the first plays i take the hero and explore the map, but the enemy killed them after a while.
then i explore a little bit and make more units to fight, but the enemy overran me :S
its one of my first tbs and i would be glad when you have tipps for me.

and yes, i'm german and my english is bad :S

Hey there,

Welcome to Age of Wonders, a great and awesome game. I can understand that you may encounter difficulties. It's not very beginner friendly. This question has been asked a couple of times. There are a few topics with tips and tricks. I'll list those topics here:

http://www.gog.com/forum/age_of_wonders_series/got_any_tips_for_a_complete_newb

http://www.gog.com/forum/age_of_wonders_series/is_the_game_hard_on_normal_age_of_wonder

This might save you some trouble. Good luck and if you have any questions, feel free to message me.

I will replay the AOW1 campaign on hard without tactical combat and see if it is possible to lose.

The early missions of AOW1 are heavily scripted. I don't remember the particulars of each one, but you're supposed to do some specific actions (explore certain areas, rush to get a specific city, avoid an enemy dominated zone...) to win, you can't just take your time to "grow and crush"
The steps should be quite obvious after 1 or 2 tries if you read the signposts and listen to the npc's comments. But yes, it's quite easy to lose if you don't follow the steps required from a mission.

Upkeep costs can be a bit oppressive if you're not used to planning for them. Often you can't even support as many neutrals as are willing to join you for little or no sign-on fee. Getting used to this was one of my biggest roadblocks starting out in AoW1. Also, in the campaign, if you're not playing on easy, the bots just outright cheat when it comes to gold. On some maps, you simply can't go for methodical expansion, and you just have to find and destroy the base and forget about holding too many towns. The AI has to cheat because it's not as smart as a player who knows the game. :-/

It's really important to capture towns. And it's often highly efficient to maintain upkeep costs by killing your dudes, as harsh as that may seem. You want to win battles, but an attack that brings your stack of 8 down to a stack of 2 or 3 and captures a city can be a blessing. The other option is not to build so many units in the first place, but often it's better just to keep momentum going. If you can't sustain all the troops you're building, at least try to kill them as fast as you make them.

And yeah, scouting, it's a good thing.

Played on normal and I can't remember a map where I didn't take over every single town & explore all dungeons before finishing off the enemy.

Hmmm. I had a lot of trouble with that in some of the later maps. I don't know if different plot choices make it easier. I know that there was a Highmen map that was just plain broken - the one with teleports between the four far corners of the world map.

There are some missions in which you have to reach a certain town within a limited time or kill their leader within a limited time. Always look at the conditions of the mission and the map and you know exactly what to do and how much tme you have to do it.

Welcome to the game. While it can be very hard at first, it does get easier. The others have posted great advice already. Scouting is essential, don't be afraid to lose a few tier 1 units if it means getting a gold mine or watch tower before the enemy does. Try to keep your leader safe but make sure they get as many kills as they can, especially in the campaign since their experience and abilities carry over between missions.