I got the series this weekend as they was on sale,checked all and started to play Dark SIde on easy difficulty,since being totally new to the game.Got really addicted to it.The game went well until i finished all quests in Portland.(The first place where i was sent after the tutorial part:)After that i had no clue where to go,tried to check all available places(the demoin realm,the orc island,the dwarf kingdom)but all ends in same way:very soon running into armies who all overpower me at least ten times,or more, marked as deadly or impossible.There is no way to avoid them since the passages are very narrow and patrols are everywhere..The only place where i was able to at least explore a little was the orc island,i found a shio and sailed around the island,talked with a shaman who have a guerilla base,and an orc innkeeeper,was sent to an underground lair to sneak past to liberate an imporatnt orc captive then again ran into crazy big armies in the cave (,hundreds of different spiders.)I managed to defeat one stack,lost half or my army and immediately after the battle got attacked by an even bigger stack of different spiders.(legions)and got destroyed.I am playing as the female demon hero,lv 12 or so atm,have armies of 2 type of imps,skeleton archers,cerberi,and some kind of demonesses all their numbers maxed to my leadership limit.i found 2 navigation charts in Portland,what supposed to unlock 2 other islands (Monteville,and Inselburg)but no idea how to get to these places,sailed around to see if i can find a water portal or like that to check these too,but did not find any, only the land portals what all leads to the places mentioned above.So, i am looking for advice about how i am supposed to proceed in game,where to go,where to find armies what i can defeat ,If anyone who already played the game can enlighten me,please?Thanks in advance,sorry if my english is not the best.

Once you have found navigation charts you can got to other islands by simply entering a boot and then clicking on the little icon above the mini-map. It will open a map where you can choose the isle you want to go to.

http://www.seoman-mondkalb.org/jpg/kbap/reisen.jpg

Also, the games are often about to go back and forth between different isles. You need to pick your fights. On new isles you can ususally gather some unguarded treasures. Often it is possible to sneak past some wandering enemy troops (save often!). Some guards can be lured out to follow you - if they are not too fast, you can outruns them and grab whatever they are guarding.
As a new player, you will need some time until you know, which skills to improve, what troops are good, and what enemies you can kill easily.

Many thanks,i sailed around like crazy ,but looked only the water and the shore,never noticed that anchor thing above.Now landed on the unlocked island,and saw guards who are stronger than the Portland ones was,but much more manageable than those i mentioned in the first post(killed 1 and lost only few imps and archers so far).Hope i can progress now a little by exploring these islands,will see:).My skill choices probly was not the best as i usually just picked whatever i could unlock after levelling up,prioritizing magic a little above anything else.But that is why i started on easy difficulty,in hope i will not get punished hardly for supoptimal choices made by a new player who likes to experiment. a lot.Will see now how these new islands looks like:).thanks again.