This game is BRUTAL - what am I doing wrong?

[Ryastar]

Well, first of all, the wizard`s tower is meant for later in the game, more like level 15 than 6...

To help further, the first thing I must ask is do you have the rage box? You should have gotten it if you have completed the quests in the main story of the game (marked with a crown in your quest log). If not, drop everything and go for it. As a warrior (which I`m guessing is what you meant by knight), the rage box is your most powerful tool. An evil shoal at the beginning of the combat does wonders to destroy enemies and the stone wall ability can help slow down opponents. Second thing: I`m guessing from the troops that you said you used that you prefer melee troops over ranged. May I suggest a more range-oriented army? It is at its best in the early game. Usually my early game army consists of Archmagi (look around for more, try the mage academy in verlon forest), priests (unless you find horsemen, and there`s a trick to get them if you`re interested, without cheating, just taking advantage of the aggro range of an enemy troop), inquisitors (if you can find them), bowman, and royal snakes (guaranteed to be at the snake woman`s hut, which is located in the snake underground). This gives you a setup of 4 ranged attackers and one no-retal fast melee unit (or 3 ranged, one tank, and one no-retal, if you get horsemen). Tactics for this is standard slow, delay, and snipe. Kill enemy ranged troops first followed by the faster opponents. Use things like stone wall or the bowman`s freeze arrow to slow opponent. Attack with the snakes one turn and move them to safety the next. As a Homm veteran, you know the drill. Thirdly, make sure to invest in magic. Even though you are a warrior, you still need spell. Distortion magic is you friend, focus on getting it to level level 3. Order magic is also useful, and a little chaos magic would help too. Make sure to use spells such as slow to complement the tactics I mentioned above.

I think that`s enough advice for now, hope that helps. I can help more once you have responded to the above question and if you give me a general idea of what tactics you have used so far.

Good Luck!

Ryastar