Personally, I play on Beginner & Skilled and always concentrate on a Warrior who doesn't need an army (maybe a swordsman or 2 to get started, that's about it). So I definitely build mills and sawmills early on, and take a long time before making a Fort . First two buildings are Library & Wizard's Guild for Magic Missile (useful mainly on low difficulties I believe) and Magic Armor. Then Forge (chain mail), possibly swordsman place, Granary + Farmer's Market for Mills if there's more than one plains around, and so on. Also try to get the quest Crystal early - and I am a pure gambler so I use it for strictly magic items.

Afterwards, the Astral (i think) magic school for Astral Energy, Foundry + Plate Armorer for Cuirass, and by this point the Warrior should be able to handle most low level sites without backup and level quickly. That's when I get a Scout to help explore for sites for my Warrior to exploit, particularly to complete the Crystal quests.

Of course by this time many turns have passed and I might be in trouble from this delay shortly. And this Strategy would probably be a big failure on Expert.



BTW GOGwiiisfun is having trouble on the first shard, so no T2 buildings for him. Unless playing on Expert or above, I still say the Warrior might be one of the easiest strategies to use. Magic Armor + Cuirass + Astral Energy lets him level very quickly.