Pirates of the Wild Sea – “King of the Wild Sea” [Campaign 8, Mission 2]

Why go through all this trouble: restarting battles ten times, racking your brain over each unit's actions?
I guess everyone has their own idea of fun.

You're right about the fun part...
Although, as a rule, I play each battle a maximum of 2-3 times – only if there are losses. But I try to win without any losses.
By the way, I was playing the second map of the Campaigns for Wayne, and I even got the "Unstoppable General" achievement – 100 battles without a loss. However, by the end of the map, I got tired of winning easily with a large army, so I played the remaining battles (about 20) on auto-battle to save real-time.

Regarding the minimum army size.
Do you remember the three heroes?
A couple of black dragons and the Armageddon spell could work wonders on the maps.

Well... not exactly. You probably played on standard maps, but, as a rule, in our tournaments (playing for results and presenting them to the public), the maps and conditions are set in such a way that you have to work very hard to win. For example, having 1000 or more Azure Dragons is a simple example.
However, I agree that we think in different categories, and our approaches to the game are different.

Heroes 6 isn't worse, it's just different.
It focuses more on strength; you can't solve much with spells alone, especially towards the end of the map.

I agree, the value of units has increased many times compared to the third game.
To be honest, I haven't tried focusing on mages and spells in Heroes 6.
I should try it, and see if I can win using spells. :)
Although, in any case, summoning elementals is still a thing.
I know a combination that can crush huge armies with magic and a minimum number of troops.
And then, using them as cover, you can eliminate the enemy with magic... The only problem is that mana runs out quickly...