I now think your strategy of bee-lining to Henchmen quickly is better with one possible addition. If you complete Charms (in Magic) and started Crystal production early, all Henchmen should get the magic gear to improve them +1 Init, +1 Hp, +1 Fire & Cold Attack.

In my current game I waited for horses (as they are really expensive tu buy in the shop); both the research and production of horses. That wait delayed the Henchmen unnecessarily.

Hopefully there are many quests on the maps, otherwise there will be a Fame-shortage. I would like to wait for 1-2 Champions to bring City buffs on the Henchmen (as my Mage Sov alrady has 2 of them). Ideally I want the Henchmen to be trained with Aura of Grace (Air 2) for +1 Ini/essence, Heart of Fire (Fire 1) for +1 Fire Attack/essence, Aura of Vitality (Life 2) for +1 Hp/essence and possibly Aura of Might (Earth 1) for +1 Def/essence. 

As soon it's possible I'll make 3 Henchmen for my Sov and 2 for my main and secondary Champion. This takes time and my Sov/Champions will continue to fight monsters of course.

Sovereign #1; Defender with +10% Xp to army, +25% Xp and +3 Defense to army. Traits; +10/15 Hp (and Plate), bee-line over Stun to +5/10/15 Spell resistance to army.  

Sovereign #2; Mage with +10% Xp to army, +25% Xp and Life. Traits; Life 2 and Compassion (+50% Healing), +Army heal/season, First Aid, Summon Whisp and Lightbringer - and after that aim for +1 Casting time (for 1 turn Fireball from Annointed by Fire).

Sovereign #3; Warrior with +10% Xp to army, +25% Xp and +3 Defense to army. Traits; +3/4/5 Attack, +10 Hp, Blade Rush, Reap III and Bloodthirsty.

The champions will each get a Mage-healer (#2). (I make both first Champion and quest Champion from the mod Champion Bonanza into Warriors - so they benefit greatly from a healer that doesn't halve the Xp.)

The Henchmen should get Tutelage (+25% Xp) when/if you can afford it.

Part of the fun of the game is that there are a very large number of workable strategies, although some work faster than others. If you like henchmen, play with henchmen, and work out how to play the best game to those strengths. Your ideas for research etc. all sound fine. In general I think most people would agree that the civilization tree is most important because it gets you roads and increased army size, among other things, but there are some important techs in the other trees as well,  e.g. increased army size, leather armour and mounted troops are all important techs available in Warfare.

In general my approach with this game (and with all strategy games) is that I want to do things as fast as possible. If you can get a development lead in the start of the game you should win. So I focus on buildings and research which will get me an advantage I can use as quickly as possible. Which building or research that is exactly depends on the situation; sometimes I need mana, sometimes I need gold, sometimes I have access to crystal but not iron, and I will adjust my research accordingly; there's no point researching metal armour if I don't have iron, but if I have plenty of crystal it's worth researching magic items in the Magic tree so I can give those to my troops instead.

It's always worth designing your own troops rather than accepting the pre-designed ones. This is especially true if you're in the situation I described, where you have large amounts of one resource but almost none of another.

For being german, your darn good at english!  I wouldnt have been able to tell if not for these two little sentences.

"Both make very much spell damage"

It should be said something like;

Both have a lot of spell damage.

and the other one is;

"(I hope you agree to my opinion)"

You should say "I hope you agree with my opinion."

"with" means that we are together in the conversation, or your with me at the bar!

Cheers! Enjoy the game.

In most aspects I agree with your reasoning around cities on food-tile-yields. Fortresses need to grow quickly to give the unrest or troop-training buffs early.

As you write, the highest essence-tile should IMHO have a Fortress (for better troop buffs or Set in stone etc) but the second highest I would rather have a Conclave on. The reason is a special Conclave-building that gives +1 mana/essence - not sure what it's called but some kind of Shard-Temple which I think you could only have one of (1 per faction). And being at work I cannot check the name (also hoping that we'll have a Wiki soon).

One of the three improvements for Fortress level 3 is Infirmiary. This gives the "Endurance-trait (+1 Hp/lvl) to new troops. 

I think the trait is only given to new troops, but from your story it seems it may be added to old troops also!?

There's a bulding like the one you're saying, and that's the Temple of Essence (Cleric - Shrine - Temple of Essence), allowed 1 for faction and only for Kingdoms, but it's not Conclave-only, so it can be built in any city with high essence. Not gamebreaking for sure.

The Conclave-only building that gives +Mana/essence is the Herbalist (Herbalist - Apothecary - Alchemist - Alchemistic Lab) and it's not limited to 1 for faction; conclaves should have several essences for this alone.

After much more trys I now favor the following strategy:

(first I must say that I play on the smallest map with 11 enemies on the 2nd highest word- and enemy-difficulty)

1. I take Tarth as race (the double attack is awesome); my hero becomes a scientist with earth and life magic, 500 gold, +1 life/level, escape from battle and clumsy; race traits are fortune teller basin, fast, accurate and no armor. Reasons: I want to raise research as much as possible, life magic gives call of sovereign with +2 growth to the city and earth magic +1 material, the troops should hit (double attack reduces accuracy) and attack fast (who attacks first wins, armor reduces speed)

2. a ) I settle on a 3-3-3 terrain (if possible I found a 2nd city): Reason: If I have luck and get heros with air and fire magic I can produce very strong troops with +5 to initiative and +5 fire damage. The goal is to raise the city as much as possible to level 4. I only make conclaves with +1 essence and +2 crystal income. Crystal is rare and necessary for magic items.

2. b ) Alternative if there is no 3-3-3 I settle on a terrain with high materials like 2-5-1. Changes to my strategy: I must produces mages (archers are too weak without the firedamage) and I build no alchemist laboratorium first because I need the crystals for the mages and productivity is already high with 5 materials.

My experience: Alternative b is the better one: 2 grains are enough to raise a city to level 4 (more is not necessary). Remember that you can cast a spell which gives an additional grain! At the end you have either 3+1+5=9 materials (on 3-3-3) or 5+1+2=8 materials (on 2-5-1). The difference is not great. But with 2-5-1 you are much faster to have all necessary buildings for food, research and production (due to the fact that you can build the food buildings much faster you can compensate the fewer grains). At the end I am about 20 turns faster to be able to build mages! And with 2-5-1 I must not rely to get a fire hero!

3. Taxes are set to 0. I spend the money for treaties of peace so I must not build troops and can produce buildings. The sovereign and the heroes become leaders. The heroes stay in the city to reduce unrest. The sovereign learns the arruracy/speed tree to ensure that my troops hit.

4. I go for the civilisation tree on the bottom first to raise production. I must have the great mill (+25 % production). I save my crystals to get the alchemist laboratory. This building boosts my production (+1 material per essence). In the last game my prodution raised from 100 to 213!

In the last game I reached this phase at turn 113.

5. Now I am ready for producing troops. I either produce archers or mages (depends on having fire magic: if yes => archers). When I reach this point I am unstoppable.

Does anybody have a better idea?

1. The henchmen are as weak as the heroes. They make less damage and have much less life then a troop.

2. I need escape. The beasts are too strong for my starting army and I want to pick up some items.

3. Earth magic is by far better then water magic. You need the highest possible production to get all necessary buildings. You get the +1 research easily by building the first research building (working room).

4. In a small map I can normally build 2 cities. I don't travel around so I don't need more moving (and +1 isn't great, is it?). I wait in my city until I have crystal (level 4 conclave) and can build mages.

By the way: What is a stack of Doom???

5. I know 2-5-1 is rare (I didn't get one yesterday in about 10 trys). Just take the field with the highest materials!

 PS: Please remember that my native language is German. Of course I have the game in german. So some terms may have different terms (example: Wahrsagerbecken = fortune teller basin => this should be the correct translation due to the dictionary; if it is called "enchanters" in the english version this would be Verzauberer in german).

'Enchanters' is the name of the trait. The building is called 'Scrying Pool', which literally means 'Wahrsagerbecken'.

Short: You are right. I made a mistake.

Question: When (which turn) can you build your strong army to deal with the enemies?

To my opinion mages are the best choice because the AI builds troops with high armor. And for this I need crystal.

Dirge of Ceresa is a very strong spell indeed but hardly enough reason to play Resoln exclusively. All the factions have some amazing powers if used correctly, including the Kingdoms. I actually prefer Kingdoms because I play as a builder rather than a warmonger and the Kingdoms have the insanely strong Sovereign's Call spell from Life magic.

If you want to get good at the game and beat it on Expert and beyond the single most important tip is to always expand as quickly as possible. Produce Pioneers as soon as you've even somewhat cleared an area and keep building more - Pioneers, Pioneers, Pioneers. You should even settle areas that are still under threat from dangerous monsters - just put a few spearmen in the city and more often than not it will be enough to scare away the monsters (who very rarely attack settlements). For the entire early part of the game settling new cities is much more important than growing your existing ones.

1: Yes. Mages are probably the strongest class

2: If you have researched 'Dance with dragons', you can build a Dragon lair. But you need an existing lair to build it and those are very rare. You might not even have one on a small map. There's also a quest that rewards a dragon.

3: The Gallowman is a lvl 7 hero. You can only recruit him if you play Empire. He's got a very strong spell called 'Consume Spirit', which I usually Spirit Steal from him.

I'm not suggesting you should do anything. Just enjoy the game I am just sharing my favorite strategy.

I often play Resoln. Resoln's sovereign is Ceresa, who is a Summoner. I do believe it is easier to beat the game with the Summoner profession, as you can start with a 4 unit army (with the Shadow Warg) instead of 3 units.

The Summoner line is a bit weird though, as the Air Elemental is very strong, but all other Elementals are mediocre. On the other hand, the special spells Necromancy II or the Lightbringer are pretty good as well.