I've played Disciples I and II many times and absolutely love them!! I know GOG doesn't sell any of the Disciple III, but I found Disciples III Renaissance for $3.00 in a used book store. So I figured it was worth a try. And the GOG community is a great place, so I figured it was worth a try reaching out here.

The graphics are very good, and I love the music. However, the difficulty on the first levels of all the available races are extremely hard for opening levels. These missions are very tough compared to the two previous games. So, I figured there's some twist or subtlety I'm missing.

I've tried several times to complete the opening missions for all the races and failed every time.

FYI, I never resorted to cheats on the first two games. I got my butt kicked a few times, adjusted my approach, and eventually succeeded. But I'm stumped on this game.

I've found posts around the Internet that confirm the first missions are hard, but they ease off in the later missions. Which sounds good, but I can't survive the early missions.

Any tips (or cheats) to help get me through these early missions?