Top 10 tips for everybody starting the game! (non-spoiler)
 

* You can increase combat animation speed in Options! It's a dropdown among the technical graphics options, so it's really easy to miss. Everybody should do this.

* You'll get the Rage Spirits by doing the King's quests (the ones marked in the list with a little crown). Once you have the box, talk to the spirits on the Hero screen to get them to work for you.

* Right-click and hold to move the camera, both on adventure and combat screen. (Limited to 180 degrees in combat)

* Right-click and hold on an unit or unit picture for a quick reference of its statistics. Shift/Ctrl click, with left mouse button, on an unit or unit picture for the info popup to stay, so that you can hover the mouse over the numbers and icons and see what all that means.

* Alt key shows turn order in combat.

* Scribe scrolls into the magic book by clicking the button next to them in the book.

* ... but don't waste magic crystals and runes on useless spells and skills; spend them only on things you really want or need, as they're not plentiful at all, particularly later in the game. High end spells may take some 50 magic crystals to scribe and upgrade.

* There's a limit on the unscribed spells in the spellbook. If you see for sale a spell you want, but can't buy for some reason, either scribe or right-click on some of your extra scrolls and chuck them out to make room (or just use them in combat).

* Once you have an upgraded spell in your spellbook, you can still cast the cheaper, lower level versions by holding Shift or Ctrl while the spellbook is open.



* F5 key quicksaves the game. Thoughtfully, the game keeps not one but three of your last quicksaves. The game also auto-saves in castles.

* Always check enemy strength before combat, by right-clicking them while adventuring. Always save before entering a battle whose difficulty you can't judge firsthand, such as creatures in castles, or upgrading/pacifying items. The Scouting skill under Soul gives additional info about enemies and is a prerequisite for many others, so it's useful to have at least on level 1.

* You can right-click and Use the Thorn sprouts, spider/snake/griffon/dragon eggs and other such items to summon creatures of that type.

* You can upgrade some items by right-clicking them and choosing Upgrade. You'll then fight the gremlins that inhabit the item. Warning: depending on the item those fights may be very difficult, so save first.

* Some items can form item sets which give additional bonuses if you're wearing all its members. Right-click on an item and choose Info. If it belongs to a set, then it's written there.

* Enemies, treasures, available items and troops etc are randomized. There's no single strategy for anything.

* It's possible to run the game in windowed mode by editing the .INI

(will add more as I think of them :) )

Great stuff, hawker! Keep it coming!

Excellent ...thank you very much ...cheers :):)

Great.. exactly what I looked for :!:

what i'd like to know is if there is a difference between russian and english version atm

is there actually a penalty for dying though? in the demo its a bonus cos u get extra cash for it..i suppose u do lose your army.

You will lose your army and stuff, but level and skills will not be removed. And also you will continue the game from the King's castle.

You indicate you will loose your 'stuff'. Do you mean items? If so can items be recovered by winning hte battle later on ? Also, sometimes you are utterly defeated and game is over. Is this totally random or based on number of times you've previously lost ?

You'll never lose items, but if you lose certain battles it is the end. I think it depends on whether it's possible to run away in a particular fight: if it isn't, like in castle sieges, then it's game over if you lose, otherwise you'll end back at the king's castle.

Two comments:

1. One thing I find annoying is moving around the map by clicking and holding the mouse; it makes the map rotate. Instead, just single-clicking on the ground keeps the map oriented.

2. I tried the windowed mode by modifying the .ini file, but the game performance went right down the tubes. Maybe I needed to synch game resolution to desktop resolution, but it was virtually unplayable.