Heya fellow masters of shards. Leveling up your heroes is crucial to any shard-conquerors such as ourselves.

Lately, I've been struggling with training my heroes, specifically the second or third one to arrive. By then, most of the remaining camps are tend to be more difficult deal with, especially considering the new hero's lack of experience doesn't allow them the use of higher tier units.

That is why I've come here to ask you all: What tactics do you use to progress all of your heroes in a steady manner?

I can't claim to know the best method to doing so, but I've had mostly good luck with just leveling him on the orcs and undead in my starting province.

See, typically I go for a Scout then have him run around grabbing as much land as I can then scouting it out, and will typically have leveled a few times by then so he can handle the surrounding hostiles.
My second hero can then clean up the starting stuff my first hero skipped, and my third hero just runs recon and explores any provinces that the first two didn't fully explore.

It's worked for me so far, but it would be interesting to hear what more experienced players have to offer on the matter.

well i use the second hero to explore my provinces (mostly the ones adjacent to my demense) there he gets easy enough encounters to level - also it is important to look what kind of monsters there are
I usually start with a warrior (because he can grab provinces really fast which i do early on) and then go for a scout - so if i see buildings with dark druids or spiders i leave them for the scout he can easily handle some spiders on level 2-4 with some bowmen as backup while a lone warrior is getting screwed by the web - on the other hand a low level shout has a hard time with skellies (I normally only use bowman) so i leave those for hero number 4 - the wizard
anyway just explore enough - even on far away provinces you encounter some easy guards and can let your low level hero grab them
an important thing is to not use autocombat on low level heroes - the ai tends to run a step into the enemies direction to shot on the first round - but doesn't step back so the melee troops of the enemy can hi a turn earlier - well i am a fan of the hit and run tactics you can employ with the scout - once he has agility on level three you can go two steps and still shot (with pathfinding you can even go through swamp/hill/forest tiles that will hinder the opponent without being delayed yourself -as long as you have ammo a scout with reasonable equipment can do wonders

I like the second hero to scout provinces and then do easy crystal quests on enemies he found while scouting. Quest completion provides lots of XP and gold/gems I might need.

Moreover there's the chance the 2nd and the 3rd hero especially will start with better equipment, spells and units.

Really? Does it depend on how much cash you have on hand and how much territory you've conquered on that shard (And your 1st hero's level)? Or is it just random chance?

I've never seen my second or third hero start with anything other than what I can buy at my castle (as in crap I want to replace asap), or start with any units other than militiamen and slingers. Am I just unlucky?

think what legionarius meant is that when you hire the second hero you might already have acquired some nice items that your your first hero couldn't use

Ahh yeah then that makes sense ^_^

Don't you get XP for just exploring?

I like the above suggestions and tend to do much of the same myself
1st Hero - Expands and then explores as populations fill their explored areas
2nd Hero - Explores starting areas and clears them to level
3rd Hero - Usually a Wizard or scout, mostly Wizard because with gems built up some spells to select from right of the bat and upgraded gear I've found with the others a Wizard can be effective even starting late.

There's another option to consider however which allows you to train up any hero late game.
Build the Arena. Granted you don't start out with it in the campaign but get it when you can because once built it secures an unlimited supply of foes to fight/level on right in your demense.

With that in play you can level a new hero much faster since you'll have access to repairs and all the recovery buffs of being at home, plus no travel time. Oh and for extra goodness combine it's use with the quests from the Crystal you can build.

Cheers,
Legion

You do get XP from exploring, but it isn't a large amount. Exploring and taking out any weak lairs is a feasible option though. It can be a good way to deal with population limits without having to pull your main heroes back from the front line.

Yeah exactly :) The first hero finds good items for the 2nd and 3rd hero, so it will be easier for them to grow up strong. In my match when I recruited my 3rd hero (a warrior) he was really strong thanks to the items other heroes had found.