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.

Absolutely, I find this strategy a real no brainer. Magic Armor + Cuirass + AE in the beginning. Stone SKin+AE mid game. AE + good equips late game. I played on Expert and I find it easy. I played it Genesis and then in New Horizons(which is harder than Genesis) and even there it still works. So solo warrior is probably one of the easiest and cheapest starting strategies - in both gold and gems even on Expert.