Tactics for the Stronghold.

Could you please advise on two issues I've encountered? 1. Let's say Crag joins our party randomly, which we're happy about. We start leveling him up. We're offered choices to improve his attack or learn a beginner skill. We choose to improve his attack, and it becomes level 3. Then, we're given a choice between two useless skills. We tolerate it and choose something that's relatively "useful." We continue leveling up. We're then offered to upgrade the previously chosen "useful" skill and a new, useless one. We upgrade further, and both skills reach level 3. Then comes the amazing continuation: we're given a choice between two new, irrelevant skills. The question is: what should we do in this case? As I understand it, re-leveling the hero from scratch isn't an option. How can we play with such skills? Should we choose the most optimal of the two and not complain? =) 2. Let's say there's a scouting area near a castle on the map. We approach and see many weak ranged units. We want to eliminate them without losses or with minimal losses. But here's the problem. If the hero doesn't have tactics or speed, even upgraded birds won't reach the enemy on the first turn =( which is very frustrating because they fall short by only 1-2 tiles. Does this mean we have to endure it again and rely on the second turn? Should we upgrade the birds in this case, since they still won't reach the enemy on the first turn? Thank you