Without a manual, there are way too many game-enders that defy comprehension.

My hero attacks a forest and finds 8 spiders. He is webbed, totally immobilized, for 26 turns before I just quit. Honestly, what is that supposed to be about? It would be different if the save function wasn't so unforgiving. But to give us so many stupid unwinnable battles and then penalize us for it is just obnoxious.
How is anyone supposed to level up a second hero? I just don't get it. Every encounter by then is impossible for him to win.
There obviously is a trick to it, but that's not strategy. That's try and die until you figure out the trick.
This could be a good game, but right now it's gamey-hard without any real reward for strategy.

Uhh my warrior cant defeat 8 freakin spiders, I cant figure out how to level a second hero, obviously the game must be rubbish!

I'm sorry. Did I ask for some adolescent insult from an idiot with reading comprehension skills? If you have nothing helpful to contribute, why don't you piss off?

I very clearly do not state that this game is rubbish. You can tell that by reading my post and observing the words.

Instead what I do say is that without a manual that although this could be a good game, I, that would be me, can't tell, because I am reduced to a try-and-die strategy.

Is that a little clearer for you?

Is there anyone with anything positive to contribute? Suggestions? Ideas? An english manual?

I'm no expert (and not all that great of a computer game player) and I built up all four commander types in one game. I don't speak Russian and I can assure that this game isn't impossible with no manual - it really isn't all that hard once you get used to the mechanics. Anyhow, the manual only tells you what the rules are, not how to win, and the basic rules aren't very complicated.

I'm not sure what the dfference is between a "trick" and a "strategy". The path to excelling an any turn-based strategy game is to figure out how to optimize performance within the ruleset of the 'd start an easy single player game on a really big map and I bet you will figure out what works pretty quickly.

Look at video from the "Stream of Eador" thread for some good basic tactics. The tactic he uses at the beginning of the game can work for second heroes . You can also save good equipment the first hereos finds, and then give to the second heroe to make it easier for him to level up. There are numerous other things that work. You'll just need to spend some time looking through this forum to see what others have done - that is what I did. Keep in mind that there are more easy to conquer sites near your capital, so don't hasve your first hero explore them after he can go after stronger opponents.

Good luck.

Like jamotide said, 8 spiders are way to hard for a beginner. Many of the more difficult monsters require special tactics. For example, if spiders are "webbing" you, you might want to destoy them before they get in web range. You can "web" them first before they get in range, you can use archers, you can scare them off, you can sacrifice some crappy troops to the spiders while you kill them off with spells and range weapons, etc, etc.

If you don't have the patience/persistence to fail a bunch of times before you figure things out or at least look through the forum, this game might not be your cup of tea.

Was that positive enough?

One thing to keep in mind is that some heroes really really benefit from gear while others it is almost negligible. For Warriors the right gear can let you solo slaughter so much, whereas with a Wizard gear helps really nothing at all, other than perhaps an early wand. Scouts also benefit a great deal with better bows/arrows. I am not sure about Commanders as I have never really bothered with this class because of the massive upkeep costs that keeping it's army full entails. Also I rather have fewer lite troops then massive amounts of newb units.

This is why 75% of the time my first hero is always a Wizard, it's so he has some good time to gain levels so that ounce you get your 2nd and 3rd circle spells he can use them effectively. After all all the spells really need your hero to have skill to use them effectively whether it's summoning or spell damage. My 2nd Hero depends on 2 factors, is there Elves or Dwarfs nearby I want to ally with? Or are there Demon sites (usually ranges 4-6 Imps each) which annihilate most early level armies but a level 1 Warrior with the even half decent gears and spells can clear solo.

OK. Explain to me how you fight 8 spiders? They can web, poison and kill your entire army without you getting to do anything. Specifically, what do you do? There is no protection from web? I note that the spell web doesn't work on creatures with resistance. But the spiders webs works on your guys no matter their resistance or characteristics. They can stack to infinity. Do you specifically need a 30 or 40 level wizard?

Spiders specifically made as anti-solo-warrior encounter.
Warrior can beat them solo though - he need full basilisk set or cloak of phoenix feather.
In case you don't have poison immunity - take army (warrior can field a lot of units) - spiders will use all ammo on them. In the same time you can help them with "burn ammo" spell. Cast vampirism, finish them with round attack.

Sniper: send onward some melee units to gather web and doubleshot spiders to death.
Commander: send something onward, use 3-4 archers/crossbowmen to kill spiders one by one.
Wizard: basically, mass suicide will kill them in one cast.

Yeah, that wasnt very nice of me, I thought about writing a proper reply, like the others here, but I was tired and thought, screw it, I done that like a million times already. Also with the last game, where you very unspecifically state that the game was rubbish kinda tipped me over the edge, so yes I decided to have a little fun. I'm sorry, as a punishment I will now try to fight 8 spiders with a warrior for 2 hours.

Oh yeah Warrior are great 2nd or even 3rd Heroes due to how easily and quickly they can level up completely solo. This is best done if you have like 1-3 Centaur Provinces near you and you don't pacify them so that they keep rebelling so he gets more fights.

My level 5 Warrior was able to fight and win vs 6 Centaurs quite easily with just some basic equips.
Skills - Defense and Weapon Master level 3.
Chainmail with Def +4/2
Shield with Def +1/1
Spear with Atk 2/3
And about 10 extra HP from about 3-4 pieces of gear.

Final stats were Atk 12/11, Def 8/6, 54 HP, 13 Stamina, 1 Resist.
Spells were 2 Magic Armor and 2 Astral Energy. (rarely needed the 2nd Astral)

Of course he was able to take on even 3 Centaurs from various sites quite early with same gear just with lower skill levels.

Didn't your hero warn you off this fight? They sometimes underestimate some opponents, but otherwise they have often a good instinct about the fights they can and cannot win (for example, non-spelcasting heroes will freak out if they see a ghost in an enemy troop, which is just good survival instinct. I ignored their warnings at my own risk, and lost an entire mid-level army to ONE of those spooks. Lesson learned, won't mess with them again unless I have some heavy magical attack)

Some monsters and soldiers are surprisingly tough customers, it's true, and your first fight against spiders, centaurs or slugs will probably not go smoothly. But that's not a manual problem : most games have a trial-and-errors approach to unit balance anyway, and won't tell you straight in their manual "For fighting spiders, use a mid-level scout or commander with some sacrificial troops or some poison-immune gargoyles. Don't send a solo fighter unless you like to die a lot". You have to figure it out yourself. It's not particular to this game.
So yes you'll get butchered sometimes, and it will feel unfair. But that's not really a problem. Even with the "ironman" save mode going, I always have the possibility to "go to the past" one turn back and try again or avoid the fight, and I often do so. It will cost me a few glory points, sure, but who cares? Glory is not that important anyway.

Short story : You made a mistake? Cool, you won't make it again. Just go back one turn and try something else :)

Actually this game has quite a few annoying little quirks like this.

Tip for Ghosts is 2nd Level Sorcery school spell Flame Blade, Gives you +4 Atk and makes your attacks Magical and only reduced by Resistance not Defense so you can lay those Ghosts to rest.

The most annoying thing to me is when facing Centaurs or Nomads. I never fight these guys with anyone other than a solo Warrior anymore unless I have the following, Mass Slow scroll for my Wiz with troops High enough to Survive the onslaught along with a Wiz High enough in level to have a few FireBalls and do some serious weakening on them.

I really wish there was a better way to get Mass spells than to have to build up the damn buildings for them as it slows Mages down considerably more than other classes.

Scroll shops? I know they are unreliable and horrendously expensive, but with some luck they are a good way to get some early 3rd level spells before your opponents.

Getting a good spell early is a huge boon. A single "hallucination" scroll transformed an early campaign shard into a cakewalk.

For horse archers : They still give me headaches, but I found them manageable on rough terrain (hills or swamps) with a commander or a scout and some good shooter troops. Flying invocations like gargoyles are good, too. Forestfolk (driad fighters and faeries to speed them up) are nice to fight the centaurs on their own turf. I might lose a few soldiers, but it gets the job done.

That's a thing I like in this game : You get trampled first, but you then learn to brew up your own "recipes" to solve the puzzles it throws at you, using whatever you have scraped on this shard :)

Actually I wouldn't ever really consider using a slot on Hallucination as it's not that versatile in the long run.

One other thing that annoys me with this game is Quest Rewards.

1) They give you sometimes a list of items but you have no idea what the individual stats are on them unless you have prior knowledge. This is where having a simple Manual with Item list would be helpful. Even better would be ability to "See" the item before you choose. 2 examples that happened recently was one of the Palladin set items, Helm/Boots/Gloves/Armor it's really annoying when you can't see what stats are on them. Or I had a choice between 4 Rings Emerald/Ruby/Topaz/Sapphire, I ended up choosing the Sapphire for my Fighter after quite a few replay's sigh.

2) Customize the Rewards for the Hero that finished it a bit more OR show what you could get if you choose Magical item over gold/gems. Just sucks that it has such a wide array of things from guard contracts, Spell rituals to equipments.

For a long game? Maybe not. Personally, I don't use it much either. But I used it as the only 2nd rank spell of a commander on a smallish shard where my enemy relied heavily on bowmen and shamans, and it was simply brutal. 1/3 to 1/2 of his armies and guards (the DANGEROUS half) were simply useless. It could also seriously pull the teeth off nomad horsebowmen and centaurs, transforming them into low-quality light cavalry, instead of the huricane-of-death they are usually. Everything was in the context

The game can be quite frustrating (and the "quest reward" thing is part of it, I agree). But it forces me to adapt to the local conditions, to the items I find, to the enemy. It doesn't give me an ideal solution I can deploy every time. That and the things I discover in-game (units, magic items, spells) are a good thing for longevity, even if (because?) it will screw up my plans.