Well, I played yesterday... and lost badly, of course. ))) I think my opponent didn't even notice how easily they won against me. )))

The background to the question: judging by the forum posts of experienced players, I've come to two conclusions: 1) experienced players don't like playing against the AI; 2) everyone gives very helpful advice on fighting neutral creatures in the early days, which suggests that they do the same when playing against real people (see conclusion #1).

So, the question is: why are automatic battles set up in all the games I've seen on the server? Can I change these settings to suit myself? And what are the generally accepted rules regarding this?

(Yesterday, I lost a lot of troops in an auto-battle against neutral creatures, but I wouldn't have lost any if I had controlled the battle myself.)