Army composition question

[BobMaster]

Hey all I'm back :p

I recently started KB again and I need some advice ...

My current army consists of:

Archmages
Knights
Evil Beholders
Horsemen
Inquisitors

Now I see people trashing groups of match and even slightly stronger at lvl 11 (my lvl now), but I have a hard time killing match groups with my army unless they are all slow units.
Only useful spells I am missing are Resurrect and Target, none of my magic is higher then level 1 yet because of rune costs, I do have Higher Magic lvl 2.

Any advice ?

P.S.: I just killed Lucky James with minimal losses, on my way to the mines.

[Lex]

I think you've been too fast with Higher Magic, and you should get higher level of Order / Distortion first. In my free time I am playing no loss impossible game with mage - so far lvl 8, just killed Redbeard and on my way to mines. My army is: Archmages, Cannoneers, Griffins, Royal Snakes and Inquisitors - around 4k of leadership. I would drop Knights and concentrate on shielded fast single tank or at least replace them with second faster tank.

[BobMaster]

Thanks Lex,

If only I could find a faster tank, I don't really like the griffins because of their low hp, even with the archmage's shield, they drop quite fast, maybe I use them wrong ?
I don't have a steady supply for them yet either.

Why Order/Distortion? my next goal would have normally been chaos lvl 2, so I could use sacrifice to get a stack of royal thorns, only 2 available right now.
I was never really a order/distortion kinda guy, occasional slow or stone skin and sometimes a heal to keep units alive, but not much else, any pointers for magic use ?
Also was thinking of changing the Knights for cannoneers, guess it would have been a bad idea ? :p

[Lex]

Disclaimer: I am still not very experienced KB:TL player, but.

I like griffins because they have high hp-leadership relationship, nice initiative + speed and they are nice source of mana with Magic Spring.
I prefer army buffs than direct damage. When our/enemy army grows then buffs also grow in strength while direct damage kill % lowers.
Replacing an army depend on player's style, but Cannoneer is pretty good unit.

[BobMaster]

Originally Posted by Lex

Disclaimer: I am still not very experienced KB:TL player, but.

You must be pretty good in my book for beating redbeard at lvl 8 no losses on impossible

My game is only normal lol

Maybe I should check my buffs more, but as I said, I'm not very proficient with magic :p

[Lex]

It is all the matter of strategy. In my opinion, for example, Redbeard was much easier than Capt Black Eye - I killed Eye right after A Holy Indulgence quest.

[BobMaster]

Yea, obviously

Still learning myself, started this because I finished all the HoMM games and VI wasn't out back then.

But this access to all races thing really adds a huge difficulty, at least for me, thank some deity it are the same units though

Let's hope some expert KB player can help some regarding magic use

[EDIT]: After searching some more on the forums, I realized I possibly screwed myself by maxing higher magic too early, mass or even lvl 2 blind and stuff would have been more useful.
Will try to pick my fights carefully and hope I can advance, or I need to restart ... again