Posts from General gameplay tactics and its features.

Nah, with my experience, I’d just be wasting other people’s time. =)

The main thing is to have the desire to play, and if you want, you'll learn.

Play with reasonable players.

***

It's better to play with newbies in GameRanger who take a minute per turn than to play against the computer!

For Yurkovsky:
First, do a check: in the first round, use "wait" with all your units. If the AI immediately retreats at the start of its turn, it probably won't work out. (unless you destroy it before its turn).

If the AI doesn't retreat, great, go through the first round, trying to kill the fastest units, and move on to the second. If you can eliminate it completely in the second round, great, do it. If not, do another check. Use "wait" with all units – if the AI retreats, try to kill slightly fewer units in the first round. If it doesn't, you'll usually be able to finish it off in the third round.

P.S. All of the above makes sense if your army is REALLY stronger. If you're almost defeating the AI, you need to do all of the above in the last or second-to-last round.

P.P.S. Note that "wait" is what matters, not defense. After "wait," you'll most likely have two turns in a row.

P.P.P.S. In general, with a little practice, you'll intuitively know when the AI will retreat and when it won't, and how many units you need to kill so that you can finish it off in the next round, without scaring it to death.

Exactly, thanks! Today I replayed one of the previous battles as you described; at the end, after exchanging armies, I was left with elves against a stack of zombies. I fed them the remaining centaurs beforehand, just in case, waited, and then wiped them all out :D
How did I not think of that myself =/

By the way, I've sometimes encountered a situation where the AI opponent flees even when it shouldn't. That is, I immediately start eliminating its fast units, and it shouldn't have any moves left because I should be able to destroy everything in one round (and thus take its artifacts) – but suddenly, with its slow unit, it manages to escape, preventing my faster unit from finishing it off. Is this a bug, or a possible situation under certain conditions?

Don't forget that he can run away while the ballista/tent/catapult is being moved.

The catapult moves first, and the ballista/tent moves last. If you don't wait, and the AI flees when its unit still hasn't had its turn, I've encountered this sometimes when calculating a complete, one-sided annihilation – that's why I remember it.