EvilLoynis: Just so you all know it is possible now to face quite a few Wizards in Myrror although Ssra is more common I have also run across Tauren, Lo'Pan and Kali. Almost from the beginning when I started playing this game I went with Dark Elves as my starting race. However this changed recently and I cannot remember exactly why but I started playing Trolls and now they are pretty much my favorite. The thing about trolls is that almost all their guys have regeneration. This means that vs low numbers of other low guys they can usually win just by walking away until they have the HP/guys back to finish them without having to flee battle. ALSO for bigger fights like vs nodes and enemy wizards is that if you Win all your guys with Regen come back after the battle. This is so good it's insane. I never start with many spell books anymore because magic is not all it's cracked up to be to often with a few exceptions. I usually start with only 4 books of magic, one in each, Life, Chaos, Nature and Sorcery (the last 3 so I can get Node Mastery). I also choose Alchemy, Warlord, Myrran and Node Mastery. The most useful spells for me in the common rank are the following: Life - Guardian Spirit (Helps you keep control of Nodes and can battle other magic spirits or low units) and Healing (helps you take care of starting wizards when they are low level). Nature - Web (REALLY helps either to deal with flyers or just immobilize an enemy until you can get to them). Sprites (good early explorers as they have a 3x3 view, also can usually explore ruins/nodes safer as the guys inside can't hit them so you know EXACTLY what is inside.) Sorcery - Floating Island (No need to deal with upkeep costs of many little ships to carry more then 2 guys as they hold 8). Phantom Warriors (cheap canon fodder for any battle and help take out bigger guys because of illusion atk). Chaos - Hell Hounds (Fire Breath attacks really good for taking out guys early esp Blue Nodes).

KingCrimson250: [Yeah, but I believe it's only possible to face Myrran wizards other than Sss'ra on Impossible (you normally get 11 picks, on Hard AI gets 13, on Impossible they get 15). Trolls are amazing due to regen, yes, but you just need to make sure you're capturing enough other races since their tech level is terrible. Dark Elves can be hard to control, but Beastmen are great for this and Draconians aren't too bad either. I don't know if I'd agree with magic being worse than retorts. Summons, especially, are important (Torin is potentially the best unit in the game, and until he reaches that potential the Sky Drake will gladly occupy that position. Mid-level summons, like Shadow Demons, Gorgons, Basilisks and Chaos Spawn are nothing to sneeze at either), but so are other excellent spells like Gaia's Blessing, Crusade, Inspiration, Fireball, Heroism, Death Spell, etc. I always go for as many spellbooks as possible with only 1-2 retorts - if anything, I find it much more interesting than a retort-heavy game, which is feasible, but you miss out on a lot of the better parts of the game, IMHO.

EvilLoynis: One other little annoyance I have with the game is with your entire army being slowed by your slowest guy. They should all really move overland at your heroes movement speed if you have one with that army.

Waltorious: I disagree... why wold units suddenly get faster just because you have a hero with them? Besides, there are already strategies for increasing movement speed in the game, like casting pathfinding on one of the units in the group or sending a pathfinding unit with the army.