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So all of you know me as a aow 1 player. I bought SM on sale and so far it's a lot of fun and addicting as hell.

Now I have a question. Why is it that sometimes the enemy troops are allowed to cross almost the entire map without running out of movement points? Oo; I mean, sure they get to start first, which I'll accept. But it's not really fair if they get to walk all the way from one end to the other end. I can never do that, so why can they?!
This question / problem has been solved by Mimoimage
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Senteria: So all of you know me as a aow 1 player. I bought SM on sale and so far it's a lot of fun and addicting as hell.

Now I have a question. Why is it that sometimes the enemy troops are allowed to cross almost the entire map without running out of movement points? Oo; I mean, sure they get to start first, which I'll accept. But it's not really fair if they get to walk all the way from one end to the other end. I can never do that, so why can they?!
Honestly I've never seen this to the extent you're talking about. Do you have a bit more context? Were they travelling through the Shadow World, or maybe were they chaining hasteberry trees on a particular map, or did they have enchantments (haste/enchanted roads) on them?
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Senteria: Why is it that sometimes the enemy troops are allowed to cross almost the entire map without running out of movement points?
A few situations where this happens more than others during combat:

1) When attacking a town, the defender can move from one wall to another wall at zero move cost. Their move cost only begins when they walk through the gates and charge you. This happens even when there are no walls.

2) In the shadow realm, move cost is only 2 points per hex and most units can get to you and still get a swing or two in.

3) Units with special move abilities really truck across certain terrain. For instance, lowly goblins run like Kenyan marathoners when fighting underground. This is particularly annoying when they have lit bombs on their backs and are screaming Jihadist slogans. (No offense meant anybody!)

4) If the enemy has hit a hasteberry bush, they would be hasted which lowers move cost by one per hex. This is very unlikely since the computer is stupid.

5) If the enemy is fast (mounted units), they will make it to you and be able to attack. Most units on foot cannot make it all the way to your troops.
I've had this happen. This is a bug. Reload the save.
I guess it's option 1.
Also I played the first level with kenan after having done both tutorials and the norwood forest.
While I like this game (played 8 hours non-stop), I loath the shadow demons. I had to literally use 4 stacks on the enemy to win. Difficulty normal, on the first level because sharira reincarnates all the time and shadow demons are overpowered. I Also suck at manual combat. Especially if they are behind walls.
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Senteria: I guess it's option 1.
Also I played the first level with kenan after having done both tutorials and the norwood forest.
While I like this game (played 8 hours non-stop), I loath the shadow demons. I had to literally use 4 stacks on the enemy to win. Difficulty normal, on the first level because sharira reincarnates all the time and shadow demons are overpowered. I Also suck at manual combat. Especially if they are behind walls.
Yes, the Nomad campaign is not easy. Especially since they expect you to move in a certain direction and do certain things. If you don't do those things, you quickly get overrun.

Re: Shadow Demons - They are very tough to beat in the Shadow Realm when you're stacks are hit with Shadow Sickness.

Re: Overall - Don't use low level units. In AoW1, you're fighting a war of attrition. In AoW2:SM, you just need a studly stack of Level 3 units (or higher). You should not be losing any of these troops at any time against the AI. Low level units should not be used beyond the beginning of the game or to attack and absorb retaliations from the enemy so your real units can avoid them.

Re: Breaching castles - Shooters behind walls should be difficult to beat. Especially when a strong unit guards the gates :)
Thanks for the answers. Also I have a witch that can heal, but apparantly I can't let the witch heal out of combat. That feels pretty lame actually.
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Senteria: Thanks for the answers. Also I have a witch that can heal, but apparantly I can't let the witch heal out of combat. That feels pretty lame actually.
The witch will heal someone every turn outside of combat if the heal ability was not actively used during combat. It's just outside of your control who will get healed. Took me a while to come to grips with that as well.

The other thing that takes a while to get used to is that your individual heroes with spell casting ability cannot use it except in combat. A good trick is to attack a low level independent to let your spell casters use their 10 points casting enchant weapon / heal / stone skin / whatever you want so that your main wizard still has spell points available as needed.
My spells actually suck and I was so frustrated that I could not beat the orcs in level 2 with Julia. Eventually they made the classic AoW 1 mistake that I took advantage on at the PBEM games as well. They made a 4th group, so I managed to kill them with a bit of luck. Most of the time auto battle seems to be the better way of solving combat in this game. It's fun but very challenging. I play it on normal because I want to experience the game to the full amount. 'Normal' feels like hard though.
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Mimo: Re: Overall - Don't use low level units. In AoW1, you're fighting a war of attrition. In AoW2:SM, you just need a studly stack of Level 3 units (or higher). You should not be losing any of these troops at any time against the AI. Low level units should not be used beyond the beginning of the game or to attack and absorb retaliations from the enemy so your real units can avoid them.
I guess you never saw Warlord in AoW butcher dozens of low level units. :-)
They might be more useful in AoW, but they also go down faster here, becasue 1-hit kills are more often.


@Senteria; Maps really are bit smaller in this one and more often enemies are able to reach each other in first round. But the thing you encountered will probably be ttat part about fortifications mimo mentioned (units able to move unlimitelly inside walls during first round of combat).
Biggest difference I need to remember in fights when switching between AoW and SM, is that in AoW units get full strike even when they spend all their move, while in SM you have to count with units losing its attacks when it spends its movement points. This is something I need to get used to each time.
It's not bad idea to learn to rely on auto-battles, though, it helps you to prepare for PBEM games.