general tips n tricks for new players

[oody]

Transmute and Glory are indeed fine talents.

Transmute is much easier to obtain for a Warrior or Paladin than Concentration, but doesn't return mana as consistently.
On my mage I simply don't have the Might runes to spare for Transmute, and in my brief test, it returned zero mana when I killed a stack with fireball.

Glory is great if you need that extra leadership early on and can spare the mind runes.

Edit: Huge annoying wall of rambling text removed.

All-in-all I think KB:AP ironed out some of the kinks from KB:TL, like rage input based on max rage and other things I can't think of right now because I haven't slept much lately!! :0 It's a fun sequel, and often reminds me of the original King's Bounty PC DOS game from my youth!

[jake21]

One of your tips is to extend combat to over 10 rounds; why do you want combat to last past 10 rounds ?

[oody]

I'm sorry for the confusion:

I only extend battles to 10 rounds to maximize rage usage and get the initial medals. Trap kills will count at any round also, so it is an excellent way to finish battles until you have the medal. Once I've finished the "first 10 rounds" medals, I only prolong battles by defending to maximize rage usage or sometimes to let concentration fill my mana pool for the next battle.

[DGDobrev]

You should note that only the battles on impossible can easily go over 10 rounds without skipping rounds for medal requirements(and that is boss/hero battles). On normal, for example, battles rarely go over 5 rounds.

Otherwise, I quite like your suggestions

[Arilian]

I do not like glory. They eat up a lots of runes and they are not needed as i always run around the first few islands and start with 1k+LDS anyway.

Concentration is great early for mages, it is way more easier to get medals even if the spells are weaker.

Less is More - with mage you probably do not need 5 stack of units. Try get a good lvl 5 unit, if you are out of luck you can get an Emerald Dragon wihouth fight for sure. (rusty anchor where you need 50/50/50 troops for the bandit)
If you get at least order 2 +heal it will never die, no loss victories garanteed and you have an easy way to get medals.

Until you have 1900 LDS for the dragon it is indeed a good idea to start woth 5 inquisitor, however i think it is best to go to scarlet get the archmages from the small island (hopefully 4) and spam shield with them. Very eays and early medals garanteed with this method. You can also push troops into traps...

Later with a mage I have found the best way to kill is to use fog+fire rain.
Less is more is still applied - if you use 2-3 stack of dragons in mid game it is like the enemy do not have melee units as they never get them. You can easy outheal ranged and enemy heroes so no loss also granted by this. Make sure you have enough mana/regen.