Hey, just got the game a week ago and loving it. Haven't really messed with the campaign too much, really liking the solo play maps. After watching the one russian guys' stream and reading a few of the posts here, I've decided to make the leap to Expert mode (Having originally played on skilled) since the tactics that you learn below that difficulty don't work at all on "Normal" mode.

I really, really like the idea of wizard first and I know it's going to be harder, but I'm having a great deal of trouble getting him to any sort of power. I've tried a few different strats, but my two "best" ones so far are quick Necro, or summons with dark rituals contantly and undead guards. I've tried the good wiz with swordsmen and buff spells and heals. I use fatigue in the early game to really lock down most of the starting fights, and then move to web and summons or web and buffs. I'll hire a second hero depending on the gear I've gotten, and usually a ranger or warrior, who almost always catches up quickly in levels due to their ease in fights.

The map I usually play on, is 1v1 and small sized (Or whichever is one from the smallest) to allow some room, and to prevent the computers from killing each other off. I tend to get Tier 2 magic before Tier 2 army, but one usually follows the other, but when I meet the computer (Turn 80 - 120) They have 3 heroes to my 2, and they're leveled 15, 7, 4 while my two heroes tend to be 9, 7. They have better spells and units always.

The big questions are this, one am I missing something about the strategy that is basic knowledge? I've seen the computer go mage first and take their first ring in about 15 - 17 turns. (Exploration turned off to have a benchmark) Of course I'm crystal starved, and if I'm going swordsman I'm also gold starved for the first 30+ turns. As good, I tend to go for quick mills, mines, lumber mills to keep money up. As evil, I still have a bit of money problems, but more gem issues since undead cost gems, and all the +gems buildings cost gems so it slows my fighting down.

Second, is there a certain building combination I should go for to help max gems per turn?

Third, is there a few tips for both good and evil that can help me improve my play with each?

Thanks in advance, and this is for expert difficulty or higher. Skilled is too easy, and I'm hoping to avoid the one inbetween as it still handicaps the neutrals.

Finally someone else who likes Wiz as first char ;)

(I hire my Wiz on 2nd turn that way if he comes with crappy Necro or Summoning I can Go into the Past for a 2nd chance. Spell Power, Wand Mastery, Thermalurgy, Wisdom and Concentration are the Order I prefer to get the skills for a starting Wiz.)

With Good Wiz + Swordies I usually take first ring by turn 15 of course it depends on how many there are and of course how many are Barbarians. Slow spells really really help early Wiz (mainly Barb/Horsemen/Executioners)because it's better than Fatigue right at the start because it prevents them from being able to rush you to quick as well as lowering their Stamina and speed goes down 2. Combine that with a Fatigue ounce they make it to you and you can pretty much just slaughter them.

By the way if you have not figured it out by now the computer cheats like crazy so measuring yourself against it is not a great thing todo. They get T2 units and spells way before they should consistently.

For an early Gem +1 you may want to get the Crystal of Power, it also gives some good early quests for exp and you usually get like 400 Gold or 150 Gems for completing it if you don't choose the magic item.

Also Slow really really helps to take on 3-4 spiders very early on. Can also help on Harpies.

I have only ever tried Necro one time and summoner about 2 or 3 just because of massive gem requirements they take and have never really enjoyed it.

Also for Magic Schools I do NOT get Necro or Infernal but the other 4. I always take Life and Wizardry for T2 as Fireball, Lightning, Flame Weapon, Word of Power and Restoration are so good to have.

Ok, so you do more of the attack spells and buffs to supplement your army, and don't really have too much of a crystal issue?

As for the computer cheating, I thought Expert was the balanced both sides were even mode. That makes me feel a bit better.

I just got out of a game where I was amazing gem wise, but could not really get the money to upkeep. I was doing many summons (No necro, which may have been my mistake) but because of the many Dark Rituals and Magic Coffers I was throwing around, my areas were in constant rebellion, and seemed to stop growing all together.

Have you had luck with plundering provinces? Or does the hate and population it kills not worth it? The rebellions I can handle, the difference in money generation between "New Lands" and "City" I'm not sure if I'm losing out on that.

Truthfully I do not ever plunder really. I have never really found it to be worthwhile in the long run unless perhaps I were todo it to Centaur Provinces to help my Warrior level up ounce he can easily take them on.

And while I do not usually play with the map exposed I must presume the computer gets to cheat. For one thing they do not have to have any special conditions to get alliances with various races as they always seem to be able to get the alliance troops super early without doing what should be required. Also don't think they have to pay upkeep on Province defenders as they have them for every single one of their provinces and never seem to have trouble resurrecting their heroes or buying full roster of troops for them. They also seem to be able to go through some difficult battles without taking any losses. I can only manage this very carefully and the computer never really plays smartly. I mean Swordies should rarely ever be offensive early on as it doesn't allow them to absorb damage through their Parry skill and they usually have much batter counter atks then normal atks.

I ration my use of spells in battle if I have a low gem issue early on. I will take more of the Magic sparks that don't require crystal and make sure I get Spell power 3 asap along with Thermalurgy 3. Also Slows only take like 2 gems a cast if I recall correctly so using them can sometimes just be all I need. Also Wand Mastery and the simple wand you get allows you todo some simple damage = to sparks if you have it high enough quickly without much cost.

I can usually take on a sight with a Knight, upto 3 Pike/Swordies, 1-2 Crossbowmen and 1 or 2 Healers quite early on by the time my swordies. Healer and Hero are around level 5 in the following way. Slow the Knight and Magic Arrow/Spark the Crossbowmen. IF you can try to position your guys so that the Knight is hitting 1 of your swordies while the other 2 are taking on their swordies/pikes. Then just keep the Knight slow and cast any fatigues on it and that one swordie with healer support should be able to take him out. Same way with executioners as well. Also Forest Guard defenders are usually 1 Sorc, 1 Spider and 1 Basiliks. These can actually be taken on as well quite early. First thing is to Slow the spider so it can't get over to you super fast, then Take out Sorc with MA/Sparks asap after that you may slow the Spider again and let your swordies/healer take out the other 2. Also 3-4 Spiders are good to take on as well. Need at least 3 slow spells though.

I mention these fights as they can really help you early on with getting some extra income if your especially short on Gold and they seem a bit to tough early on especially the forest guards. Although because of the Sorc you really want Spell power and Thermalurgy both lvl 3 if you can since they have like 5-6 resist otherwise.

On expert you need to get second hero faster than crystal :\.

Some tips:
1. You don't need to focus on amount of provinces. Look for sites.
2. Basically, mage is weak on the start, so preferable for him those units who can deal damage on their own. Barbarians+healer for evil side, 2 swordsmen+healer+crossbowman for good.
3. Must have schools - sorcery(astral energy, web) and wizardry(need magic weapon/armor). As for secondaries I prefer wind(great ritual) and necromancy(tier 2 OP - best ritual for scout, best spell for warrior, and ghoul is the most useful summon)

At 10 level you can go into mage/warrior dual - with heavy armour he become pretty tough, and class passives very great for taking on tough opponents. Can go solo straight away with some lucky drop.
mage/commander - his debuffs lasts forever. Take ghoul, crossbowmen, sleep, phantom form - and you can attack very tough sites. Basically, every dangerous enemy will sleep while you take them one by one.
mage/scout - worth getting only for pathfinding. Archmage is a better necromancer.
mage/mage - doublecast is great, but you rarely will reach 20 level with him.

Awesome, thanks for all the help from both of you. It's still a tough matchup, but with these I'm able to at least take the initial ring earlier. I just had exploration off in order to see how well the computer was doing, now I'm going back and going full fog again.

So my next few games, I'll focus on the quick 2nd hero and also try out some of those slows, as I was not able to kill the same groups that you were able to with my old strat.

Not sure why you put this in as my getting the Crystal of Power actually would have speeded up getting my 2nd Hero (If I had bothered with the Comp right on my doorstep) for 2 reasons, Lower Price and Gold Reward from quest was pretty much all that I needed for 2nd Hero. Also that quest can sometimes give you a GREAT weapon for your 2nd Hero to start right away with so is worth it.

Also I kind of hate dual classing on most classes except for Commander. This is because levels 4&5 of skills usually by themselves give more or equal to levels 1-3. 2nd is that when it comes time to double class you don't have much choice of the 1 possible skill it gives you so you could end up wasting it a LOT which because you now have so many skills to choose from kind of sucks.

Second hero needs 50 gems. With crystal - 45. Crystal cost - 30 with mandrake, without - 35+. Spending 70% of needed resource wouldn't improve speed of acquiring second hero.
Sure, it can help, if you get goblins and have goblin provinces and goblin sites available. But you can get brigands(their sites almost always hidden, you will need to explore) or elves (they are pretty common in shop defense).
Then what? Crystal is not a win/win building. Second hero - is.

Later you will see that gold usually is not a problem in second hero cost. (probably, when you understand that first ring you can take in 13 turns at max)

I really need to make sure what you say and what I hear are the same here.

You are stating that you could take all the 6 provinces above, 3 of them Barbarian with 3 Barb and 1 Shaman defenders, plus the others by turn 13 with a WIZARD on Expert Difficulty?. Please make sure you read what my starting position was like and then tell me which tactics you would have used to defeat them.
I am sorry but I really have to call BS on your statement. Really wish I had saved the opening start file for that game so I could get you the save so you could try.

Usually I spend first 3-5 turns in demesne, clearing sites.
Anyway:
0. tavern
1. Take 3 barbarians. attack free settlement
2. return to demesne
3. Attack goblins.
4. return to demesne
5. attack goblins
6. return to demesne
7. at this point you must have library. take fatigue. barbarians
8. demesne
9. barbarians
10. demesne
11. barbarians
12. demesne.
First ring complete.
You can see that this is the worst case - when you each turn return to demesne.
Sometimes you can attack provinces in a row (in this case, probably - 4 goblins + free settlement)

Ok not sure if this would have worked on the Barbs as they had an avg lvl of 3 and shaman usually lvl 1 or 2, he does 6-7 ranged magic damage and/or curse your barbs. Also the Hilly province was deadly on hills to slow both sides barbs down. If you had ditched all spells including your Magic Arrow you would have been able to carry 4 Fatigues which would have been good at taking out 2 barbs hopefully. But remember, ounce they go berserk stamina does not reduce their damage.

Also with the Goblin Swamp you would have faced 6 gobies, avg lvl 2-3, on a very swampy terrain. I mean like 70% was swampy so not even sure about that one.

However you just may have been able todo what you say. Although the constant resupplying of Barbs at 30gold each would have drained your income so much not really sure you would have been able to build anything.

Anyway I just started a new game Avg Map, 5 players Xpert. Got really lucky with starting mage, Wisdom so he has 5 spell slots and they have 2 Magic Arrows, Spark and 2 Fatigue right off the bat.

Actually, it does. Though this is not very obvious, because berserkering adds attack. But you can see it on counterattack.

Are you absolutely sure here as the description of Beserk states "Ounce heavily wounded, the unit falls into Rage. As a result, his attack value increases by #, and wounds do not affect it. The berserker unit's Morale never falters."

One reason you may think it does is that Berserkers Counter Attack value is so sucky at only 4 while it's attack is 9. Berserking only effects Attack not counter as well.

We be kind of crappy if one of the few explanations for anything you get in game was wrong.

* Also am I the only one who thinks "Heavily Wounded" kicks in with a bare 20-25% damage is really dumb? I mean these guys go berserk on me every time I hit them. Although whenever I do use them it usually never kicks in till my guy is half dead.