Strength indicators seem iffy.

I have noticed this ass well. It depends, in part, on the mix between your assets and the mob's. Some mobs are a pushover by some troops, but not by others... depends on the mix. Also, with things that maul, like bears, it depends (in the early game) on who has the first move. If the bear mauls to death your best unit...it hurts. If you whack first, well... bear steak time.

Different monsters fight different, each have strengths and weaknesses. You can beat that single ogre or troll who's looking strong or deadly, and get mopped by an army of darklings flagged as weak.

It is not an accurate measure of how well you will do in battle. Their strength indicator is more tied to level / numbers. If you get surrounded by groups of 4-5 mites they will instagib your hero or whatever unit was there. Swarm bonus etc.

 

You need to learn how to fight against different monster types, what are their key units, what to look out for etc. You can be a level 20 and get mauled to death by a level 5 bear because of bad rng on your dodge (if any) etc. Of course the bear is flagged as weak since is has 12 hp and low attk, no defence etc. That doesn't mean he should just flop over you or hit for nothing

I see now that it's no good just glancing at the overall strength.  You have to really look at everything, especially traits.  The strength meter mean nothing, that is why I have been getting beat all of the time.

Yes that's VITAL to inspect the enemy you're about to attack (or if you get ambushed, spend first round checking what mix of units and abilities they have before deciding a course of action or retreat if necessary).

I remember in a game couple days ago I was in early game, with a level 5 hero and level 4 spearmen / militia and a golem lvl 3. And run into a simple cave bear pup. Level 2. 8 or 10 hp can't recall. And he went straight at my militia and mauled their @$$ into oblivion killing them with nothing on my side I could do to prevent it. 

 

But that's one of the best things about this game. If you could predict and control EVERYTHING, the game would quickly lose interest and become plain boring, since you had 100% control of everything. The most fun / challenging / surprising / exciting part is how to adapt and react to unexpected situations. Like enemies getting a crit. Your mage missing a counterspell. That little bear pup getting good RNG on his maul chewing your unit down.

 

RNG is good for the health and replay factor of the game. If everything would be the same (aka unit A beats unit B no matter what) it wouldn't be fun

I agree wholeheartedly with Anelyn above. What helps me is to think of the 'threat' level as a 'fuzzy' indicator of how challenging the MOB 'might' be in a worst case scenario vis-a-vie my group of hero(enes) and troops. And yes, the fuzzy mix makes the game more challenging and exciting. Sometimes its better to invest in initiative than in 'more' HPs or better armor. etc. etc. Enjoy the wonderful and wacky world of ....

Now that we agreed, let's go smack that Troll Shaman group, he's blocking the road and I can't park my horse!

 

Ha!

He was of strength 336, and mine only 29.  And I kicked his bottom right off the huge and slightly hilly map.  :)

Troll shaman group?  Just bring Izzy-whats-his-face along and let him 'coal-fire-em all.  lol

Oh yeah baby! You hit the spot!

Now let's not remember the first time I played LH and got a fire mage with burning hands and send him in front of 3 trolls because they were vulnerable to fire and hit the spell saying BURN BABY BURN! MWAHAHAH just to see resist resist resist, SMACK! there flies the wizard!

Yes, them trolls love to smack upstart fire wizzys down... lol.  Best thing with trolls is lots of cheap summoned beings to keep them busy - while you range attack them, and/or hit them (one at a time) with all your decent hitting troops.  hey, sometimes you even survive.  Oh, if you get the giant cat quest, don't bother giving him 'eviscerate.'  It ends the 'maul' attack sequence (sad).  But he is great against trolls, especially with a bit of 'dodge' added on.

Unlike most peeps I enjoy playing Assassin classes (as Sovereign and even heroes). What I'm waiting for SD to fix is couple abilities from this specialization that literally don't work (like shadow strike armor ignore, and Break armor remove).

Wait, I knew break didn't work (though I was under the impression that they'd fixed that one), but shadow strike doesn't do anything either?! What a gyp! I wondered why my Assassin wasn't doing much of anything in battle.

Yep they don't work at all. Nor does the bows armor ignore. 

 

To be completely fair, I haven't tested shadow strike with melee weapons since I made my sin sovereign archery oriented. So it might be worth to test if with blunt weapons, axes or swords the bonus is applied. If that's the case I expect the bonus is broken in relation to Bows (since bows are broken as well not offering then 50% enemy defense ignore).