Yeah, I play the campaign on beginner, and having to deal with my first few AI province guards was brutal. Armies I would have chewed and spit out if they were neutral suddenly became far tougher. Nice, as it gives a "now it's serious" aura to AI opponents ^^

And yes, as has been said, if you underestimate an enemy warparty and get slaughtered, you can go back in time one turn. It will only cost you a few points and the "tactician/strategist" achievements. Nothing important for a beginner getting used to the game :)

My level 23 ArchMage just recently took on the most dangerous level of the Labyrinth in a avg shard single scenario I was playing.

He wiped out 12 Minotaurs in 2 turns.
If i had 2 Mass Suicide instead of only 1 it would have been only 1 turn haha. Used 3 FBall followed by a Mass Suicide instead. The Fire Balls were so their Berserk triggered thus dealing more damage when I finally cast Mass Suicide.

Also I had a level 29 Pure warrior take on 6 Thugs, 4 Executioners and 5 War Elephants all around lvl 15 and win. It was very close though and had to reload the fight a couple times before I managed.

The ArchMage was also able to take on one of those travelling super shops guarded by 12 Golems. I had a Summon Phoenix spell as well as a really powerful wand and a War Elephant myself along with 3 Guardsmen that had First Strike.

First time managed to do all 3 of the above. Although I have taken on smaller numbers of Minotaurs using Mass Slow/Disease and FBalls.

I mean "beginner with overestimation" - when you play as warrior on beginner, first 10 shards you, basically, can win by pressing F10 each battle. Then you meet oumm and his 6 minotaurs.

When you know the game, minotaurs rarely give problems.

Thanks for the very insightful and eltist opinions guys, really helpful.

Anyway when I start the game what should I focus on? Should I explore everything and try to gain as much land as possible or should I rather try to get only a few but explore them more indepth than accumulating a lot of provinces?

Also I find it hard to even conquer some of the neighbouring neighbours, the last few custom games, these neighbours had good units and manpower compared to my hero and his pityful army. Should I just idle and wait until I get better units? Mostly I'm always surrounded by decent neutral tiles that can actually kill me.

Also what I should build right from the bat? Is exploring even worth it because it takes away many turns that could I have spent more wisely,

The key is to level your main hero, and waste as little time as possible with exploring, moving and resupplying. You can use additional heroes to do the scouting.
As for good starts, the easiest is probably swordsman and a healer. You can look into the society common game thread on how it works.

Was the loot any good? So far I noticed they don't drop the good stuff that they sell.

Your priority whole game - cracking up sites. If you don't have sites, conquer surrounding. Can't conquer - explore.
Initial build order, without karma specific:
(optional)cannon fodder - brigands/thieves for easy cheap start
1. main T1 fighter. Barbarians/swordsmen
2. Library
3. healers(they are good in evil armies too, even just by additional regeneration between battles)
4. magic schools(.wizardry and sorcery are mandatory)
5. upgrade market quarter for possibility to build storage house. (repair outside of demesne)

I suggest for you to hire barbarians and build necromancy school - 3 barbarians into 3 zombies = really easy 1-2 rings.
Drown your enemies in dead bodies :) Playing from defense needs grasp of AI priorities.

Thanks, that helped quite a bit for now.

Should I even bother with spearmen or bowmen? It seems like they're really weak.

Also at times there are provinces that are only guarded by like 3 barbarians and they wreck me without any issue whatsoever, does the value of certain enemies change with your character or is it random?

Spearmen are good with commander, which plan to utilize starting slinger and make from him monster like http://i46.tinypic.com/u07pe.jpg - Doubleshot, armor piercing shot, and 3 armor pierce from medals(=ignore of 6 ranged defense), 20+ ranged damage per shot, 40 per double. 80 damage with astral energy - enough to kill minotaur in one turn. But he needs initial help from spearmen (ranged defense decrease).

T1 ranged units intended by the creator for cannon fodder. Backbone of the game - T2/T3 units. In late game you hire ranged T1 and let them shoot from behind for 0-1 damage. You can utilize veteran shooters, but they can't carry, maybe except elves. But elves in top 5 of slowest exp gain. You can get slinger to level 30 twice, while elf would get level 10.

And then he gets killed by some centaurs.


Anyway I'm right now on Shard 8 or so on Beginner, have only had one really hard shard so far (second shard with Oinor, my Warrior got killed so many times, but eventually out-leveled all of his heroes and slaughtered them easily.)

Been using high level Warrior, with early on peasants as meat shields to help him survive encounters. Archmages seem so weak in the beginning, but maybe I should try them...

Have never managed to keep any units alive past level 5.

This is strategist's army on screen - he have 5 clerics with revive and 11 slingers like that.

Ah, ok :)

Mages can take a while to get going (and level up pretty slowly), but can be absolutely devastating once they hit level 20 (double cast) and you load them out with some decent spells. I generally like to take a mage as my second hero so that they have plenty of time to level up, and they come into their own right around the time that my first hero (usually a scout) starts running into some armies than can be troublesome. Aside from the few magic-immune creatures (Dragons, Golems), a high-level mage with good spells can take down pretty much any army you come across in just a few turns with no losses. I personally like loading up my mage with Mass Suicide and White Magic- firing both of those off in the first round will instantly wipe out level 1 and 2 units, and many level 3 units. Word of Ice can take high-HP units and heroes out of the fight for up to 10 rounds, and if you don't mind the bad karma the undead summons can make starting out quite easy, and give you access to level 3 and 4 units much faster than you'd normally get them (provided you can get the right spells).