Life Buildings

Regarding scouting. Seriously? ;) Where, exactly?

1) Altar
2) Tavern
3) Castles of Chaos, Death, Nature, and Might.
4) Beastmaster (gives a free starting combat skill)
5) Combat Academy (I made up the name, gives 4 random combat skills)

The chance of finding these on the map is quite high (especially 4 and 5), of course, it depends on the map itself, but most maps have two castles, or even more (which means a 4 out of 6 chance, not counting the other items).

Personally, I find it difficult to develop a Life faction because it lacks a strong, impactful unit or combination, and it doesn't have a powerful hero (like a Chaos or Barbarian). In my opinion, Life units always need the support of their mage and require specific tactics; they are heavily dependent on this. Also, a Might mage in the army would be very helpful.
In principle, you can get by with archers at the beginning (ballista), but the speed will suffer.