I am curently playing the campaign on expert with rather bad results. After like literally 100 attempts I now manage to conquer the first shard from time to time, but never could win a second one. Most tips here do not mention on which difficulty level the shard is played.
Can anybody of you tell me if trying to win on expert is feasible?

As I'm still struggling to clear the first few shards in Beginner, I can't say ^_^

Most people tend to be playing on either Beginner or Skilled from what I've gathered.

Yes Skilled here. I've been thinking of going to expert, but I've heard how long this campaign is and frankly I think I'd rather finish it on Skilled now and then maybe try some harder difficulties...

Probably is doable, I am playing on one level below Expert (Competent) from shard 4 to 14 now and the difficulty is just right. So I guess with more knowledge it should be now problem on Expert.

Don't reduce difficulty!
If you are used to play in lower diff, it will be more hard to play in expert later. Because tactics in expert mode and in begginer/skilled mode are not the same.
If it is too hard to you to play campaign in Expert, try to play some single maps, try some unexpectible tactics and you will have an expirience.

To be honest, many players have some troubles with firsts shards in campaign, because campaign difficulty is not well-balanced.

Try some of this starting tactics:
- Commander with barbarians and healer
- Commander with swordsmen and healer - more expensive but easy. You need to be sure that you have enough gold or metla near =))
- Warrior or Scout with some cheap units: robbers or spikemen

And i don't recommend to start with Mage hero in the fearly shards in campaign

Of course!
For evil - cheap and fast:
- tavern + mercenary (if he will be good)
- tavern + barbarians
- tavern + robbers - cheap cannon fodder
For good - long and expensive:
- swordsmen + altar + healer + any magic

You may don't attack first turns. Just explore or loot your own home provice for gold =) And wait the best units will be availible. But don't forget to have an single militiamen, your angry people can rise!

p.s. sorry, i dont know building names in english version, cause i only played russian



Try other tactics)))

If i have a rich plains around my home castle, i take a Commander with huge army
If i have a hills - then Warrior
If forests and swamps - Scout is the best choice IMO

I envy those claiming Skilled to be easy, or even too easy XD

I think all my fun is just going to be restarting the campaign perpetually =P
Don't think I'll ever end up meeting Dorikos. Poor guy, I really want to befriend him D=



Anyway... I've started going down the Warrior + Pikemen/Healer route. Been going well so far, but I figure only because I had a source of Iron nearby. I've only died once, and it was at the hands of skeletons very early on. Grabbed Magic Arrow as soon as I could so I could waste would-be snipers before they could do any harm. Also to take out neutral Ghouls before they could poison me.

The Commander with Swordsmen with Healers is a good combo but add in ranged units as soon as you can so you're not so vulnerable to enemy archers or spellcasters. Choose your battles. Goblins and Orcs (no more than 4 in total) / Skeletons and Zombies (no more than 5 in total) are good to level up on early, but if in doubt you should retreat. A turn wasted retreating is better than 2 or more turns waiting for a hero to be resurrected. In time you should get an idea of which battles you can win. Also, try to keep your cash flow positive. It's easy to add new units or give them medals and then find yourself risking battles just to make ends meet . And keep your commander out of battle if you can. Give him 3 magic spark spells from the library so he can do some damage before the enemy gets to your Swordsmen.

Ah yes and if you're not in it for the High Score, then don't be afraid to take a step back in time ^_^
To my knowledge, reduced score is the only drawback to that.

Ok, I am definitly going the good route. It just seems to me, that swordman + healer without any of the ressources will be extremly expensive. How can you afford this without expanding?

looting and exploring!
Clearing sites brings more gold than expanding

Yeah well that's usually what I do when I get defeated the quickest ^_^

Unless by some miracle this tactic works better on Skilled and higher than on Beginner, I've had more luck hiring a Warrior and having him go on a rampage behind enemy lines. The sitting there clearing and exploring has only worked when I'm with Local lords (Who always seem to be set to beginner.). It's never once - not even a single time - worked for me when I'm up against Orionor or that dumb necromancer guy you meet afterwards.

Buuuut that's just my personal experiences.

Warrior-rush is almost better strategy just in lower difficultes. =)

Ahh gotcha. =)

Lower difficulties is relative and quite misleading though, as it's still very hard DX
Seesh, even HoMM wasn't this tough - but it's close~