I get butchered in the first map of the "beginner" campaign. How hard is the game supposed to be, exactly?

On the first map (well, the second, after the tutorial), I am now facing at least 2 enemy wizards. With only two heroes (Archer + Wizard) ,the best I can do is to fend them off at each turn as they try to invade the same province. (Since they all have several heroes, I feel lucky that they all come for the same province). Since, in the first map, there are no luxuries such as "storehouse" or "library", I am unable to correctly upgrade my heroes or even prevent their gear from breaking.

The other problem is that, while I am only able to recruit a pitiful "recruits" provincial guard, the AI is fielding huge groups of Bowmen, Assassins, etc. So that blietzkrieging them is not an option either.

And a final question: there are at least 3 English forums for this game; here at gog, snowbirdgames, and eador.com (English section in the Russian forum). Which one is the canonical forum for strategy advice?

1. The wizard is completely the wrong choice for that scenario because a wizard is only as good as the spells he gets and you have zero spell picks so far… later in the campaign when level 3 or 4 spells start showing up is the time to invest in that sucker.

2. In the case you describe, I would park the archer at the capital until it is fully explored (assumes you didn’t yet), which only leaves the wiz so he should be placed behind the province and hire adventurers or the best guards card you have (horde make a solid wall in that kind of defence)… the wizard should counter-attack the province after it has fallen and while the enemy hero is weakened.

3. This is a Russian game and they have been playing for a long time so they would be my goto forum (at least for player vs player)… the computer should be played on easy for the first campaign and work your way up to skilled after you get all the mechanics worked out.

p.s. sounds to me like you pushed out right off the bat instead of building up your capital first but it could also just be a case of the enemy got a lucky start with regards to alliances… life isn’t fair and this game makes no apologies for taking advantage of that.

As a new player, i would stick with the warrior as first hero and go for beserker/round attack and scout as second hero and go for double shot. A a newb, wizard would be the last Hero you want - they are the weakest Hero at lower levels and the most powerful at higher levels.

This is how i would start... first hero warrior with pikemen (pikemen are the best baby sitters for new hero's) then when the warrior levels up a bit i will start adding more crossbowmen and less pikemen. then after that i will use combinations of crossbowmen and swordsmen according to the enemy. For example, if i am facing Centaurs i won't want any crossbowmen just swordsmen, or if i am facing druid/wizard type army, i will want more crossbowmen and less or no swordsmen.

And don't hire provincial guards just for the sake of random invasions, it is way too expensive. I hire provincial guards in provinces with resources to protect or i hire foresters in Forrest provinces because they make money or provinces near enemy territory. typically, those random dickheads that invade a province, the defenders are weak, useful for training newer hero's!

You have to have patience at the start of a game and understand that you have to reject many battles, ,,, sometimes it may feel like your party is too useless to do anything at all, but be patient, eventually you will find suitable battles, even if you have to stay at your castle and scout there for as many turns as it takes!

Here is the best piece of advice i can give a new player who wants to progress... If i face a difficult province, usually one with a resource i need and i cannot beat them yet, i will often invade anyway and sacrifice a hero (and resurrect him at the castle later) provided i can inflict sufficient casualties that my second hero can win the net turn! But don't do this too much because resurrecting gets more expensive each time!

Thanks to both of you for your quick answers! Scout (-> Archer) is the first hero, and quite capable (he conquered about 10 provinces without losing units). Wizard was the second one. (I wanted to avoid Commander this early in the campaign, while being useful against armored enemies (AI seems to love Warriors), so it seemed logical...). Early on, the Wizard does not have spells and the Commander does not have units, but neither does the Warrior or the Scout have equipment! (Well, my Scout found an Archery store in the capitol). This does not work. As I counter-attack, the enemy hero simply falls back. I did not manage to force a single battle with an enemy hero.

Moreover:
- the best guards I have are adventurers (1 contract only) and then recruits. How does the beginner AI get such huge guards?
- each hero is more or less stuck defending against one enemy AI (and I got lucky with the map in that each enemy has a 1 province bottleneck!) You mean the forum on eador.com? Well, google translate is not that good for Russian, so maybe I should learn it after all :-) Capitol is (almost) fully built - not that there is much to build in the very first shard. I did not want to wait too long before attacking, as I saw in the various forums that this game is quite fast-paced. I have bowmen (I find crossbows useless with their shorter range, and bowmen can usually one-shot them) and swordsmen, plus a few left-over slingers and spearmen from heroes.

I tried to make peace with at least one of my neighbours but it was physically impossible, as the Diplomacy button was greyed out. Is Diplomacy unlocked by a later shard?

Also, I expected the first shards to be easier. Does it get even worse later?

Some of the points you raise are general ones but I'll try to clear it up for you.

1. Each hero has strong and weak points its true but the wizard struggles more in the early campaign because the level 1 spells don't give him enough power to kill more than 1 target per turn. A warrior can pick up any old club and kill three targets with it… the archer is king of the hero killers (lest useful against their army) and the commander will steam roller the map with just swordsmen and crossbows (he buffs them up remember)… it's your game m8 and yes the wizard is a true force at level 20 with his two high level spell opening but that’s a long way from the starting shard.

2. Failing to catch the enemy hero is perhaps a strategic issue… a wizard will struggle to catch an archer (even if he did take wands) but did you skip the initiative bonus for something else & are you always setting up second when the battles start?

3. Is your economy healthy i.e. did you build windmills, mines and sawmills to keep the treasury ticking when the heroes are not fighting something… have you got inns in key areas to keep the people happy and allow fast hiring of adventurers when the enemy comes sniffing around.

4. Part of Building up your capital is exploring the area fully & this is more important in the campaign game than when playing against a human player;
a.Exploring the land allows the villages to grow faster and (especially with humans) keeps them happy… plains, Forrest and hills produce the best income while swamps are only really good for gems and the slugs needed to get the lizards on side.
b.More often than not exploring the area will get you the resources that you wanted anyway… once I find a resource then I generally stop exploring and move on.
c.Fights at your capital are typically the easiest with zero down time for repairs and that’s the key to winning… I maintain that you get no benefit from running around looking at the country side and it's only the enemy capital which will attain the shard for you… if you keep your hero at home, cutting his teeth on easy (local) battles then he will level up faster and that’s why my hero is a higher level than the enemy one
.
5. I like them; Crossbow have armour, give a point of lawful for having them (which partly makes up for the evil shit your wizard is blackening your name with), and should be placed on hill whenever you can for the extra range… yes they are targets to enemy bows but those unit should be what your hero is dealing with first. With the notable exception of elf units they are the best level 1 range… my early campaign Commander has two swords or pikes, 1 healer and the rest is crossbows.

6. Diplomacy only works with the other gods in the computer campaign and they shouldn't be around on this shard… they will introduce themselves when you bump into them on the shard maps and typically offer you peace at least to start with.

7. Yes it gets easier because every shard you win adds something to your army or allows different abilities so that you can tailor your attacks… yes it gets harder because other gods will start competing with you for the same shards and that sometimes means you will have to change your play-style to adapt.

To be clear, against a human player or on a tiny shard yes a fast land grab can work but in general and the early campaign especially… slow and steady growth is the better strategy.

Yeah, I had a few rough battles at the start of the campaign, too. Espacially on an early map where I lost because, like for you, the 2 enemy lords attacked me and my heroes were not numerous enough to protect the 2 fronts. Some things that I learned.

- If you want to force a fight, you have to be the agressor, the one who comes after them. If they attack, they will have the opportunity to retreat. Fortresses are really good to "stick" an enemy army in a territory (they have to siege it for several turns) so that your heroes can attack them, but you don't have them this early in the campaign. In the early campaign, you have to guess the enemy movement to corner their army.

- Sometimes, the enemy will randomly get a real advantage on you that will make a map very hard, esp. on small maps during the early campaign. For example, if they get a centaur alliance (rank 2 troops), and you only have rank one soldiers because you're at the start of the campaign, you'll probably get trampled like I was. Good news is that you can lose a map without losing the game (unless it's an invasion of your homeworld), and without loosing the "win bonus" you were fighting for (you'll have to get them on another map later, that's all). So do not dispair, some maps can be harder than the norm.

- You do not have to conquer the whole map. In fact, conquering a new province can be bad because it will raise the corruption in your whole realm. You need a territory large and developped enough that you'll have a steady income, and with the right ressources (wood and iron are very important when starting), but small enough that you can control it. Blob-like expansion will come in the endgame, when you start steamrolling the enemy.

- You don't need a guard in each territory, only in key ones (your home, the border or a rebelling province with an important ressource, for example). In fact, putting too many guards can be damaging if the enemy is strong enough : Basically, a weak guard is you paying for free xp for enemy heroes...
Especially if you oplay as "beginner" : At that level, killing your troops is easier for the enemy than killing neutral monsters.

- It's the reason why the enemy guards feel so strong to you, by the way : On beginner, you get a huge bonus against neutrals (and the IA gets a huge malus against them), but no bonus when fighting enemy lords. So their soldiers are nearly twice as tough than the same soldier in a neutral site.

- Your empire's power is not really set by your territory, but by your heroes levels. Exploring, going on adventures, clearing sites, can be as important as conquest (or more important, even), because it will give you experience, gold, weapons for your archer, magic scrolls for your wizard (and a good scroll can boost the power of your wizard and turn the table quite a bit in the early campaign), and will make the province more profitable.
On the same idea, killing an enemy army is often better than simply conquering one of their province

- A third hero will allow you to explore more territory and counter more enemies. At first, they need babysitting, sure, but when they have a few levels under their belt and start looting sites, they pay for themselves.

You'll see, the first few maps are challenging, but game "feels" easier quite quickly.

Have fun!

The most important thing to learn is to not waste time, try to avoid scouting whenever possible. Always fight something. A higher level hero is more important than any well built infrastructure.

The eador.com forum is somewhat readable with a translator and certainly the most interesting, you wouldn't believe some of the stuff some players there can pull off. They did have the game 2 years longer. If you ask in the english section, you can also get answers for everything.

Game was written for hardcore TBS fans by hardcore TBS fan.
Game expects from you understanding of basics (morale&stamina) and familiarity with units.
I would recommend to start hotseat game for 3-4 players and explore colossal shard without any pressure from AI.
This way you would be able to try every unit and school of magic.

As for dealing with situation where you can't protect your lands, but can kill enemy hero - let AI make road to your demesne and besiege it (make sure that you have at least one unit in it). If AI can reach you demesne, he will fly to it like a moth, skipping every other possibility.

You can get storehouse-like and library-like buildings as drop, though rarely.

As a go-to forum, I would recommend gog.com :) eador.com mostly talks about New Horizons mod , and snowbird forum fights with MOTBW bugs.

Don't know, is it relevant now, but swordsmen+wizard with fatigue should mince bowmen for bacon easily.