First of all, in Lords of the Realm, the developers kindly provided us with the ability to find out what danger a particular neutral creature poses to us. "Medium danger" means the strength of the neutral/enemy army is comparable to yours. "Low" means 1/2 the strength of your army, "very low" means less than 1/2 the strength of your army, "high" means the army is stronger than yours, and "no chance" – well, that's obvious. Secondly, the start depends on the hero you choose. It's easier to start the game with heroes who specialize in ranged creatures. Also, some heroes have an advantage because they start with a spell. Sometimes, to strengthen your army at the start, it makes sense to build a tavern and hire a hero from it. I don't usually have any particular problems with ranged units of levels 1-2, but it's still very difficult to avoid losses. The only ones that cause trouble are ranged units because they can deal terrible damage, but fortunately, their initiative is 8, which is the lowest among all ranged units. And it's scary to even think about levels 3 and 4... There are elven archers, succubi, and druids. It's impossible to defeat them in the early stages without losses, and they can guard a strategically important mine.