- always keep 2 blue gems (the strategic points) on your troopers during their exploration, if while you move too far you see there's only 1 left go back to your previous point so you get at least 2.
The reason is that Dodging and Parrying requires 2 blue gems and you absolutely never want one of your troopers to be stuck in his end of turn without a dodge or parry active because chances are that the AI will target that now defenseless trooper with a few of his guys.
- ambush is to never be used UNLESS you have a few weak (or very hurt) troopers you want to protect and you have a full health guy left to protect them, because using ambush means you'll have the 1st attack but after that 1st attack your enemy will have his full amount of attacks on your character without him having any dodge or parry active and it can hurt a lot.
- go capture wyrdstones in group, never send a guy alone to a bunch of wyrdstones you saw on the map, that's the best way for that guy to be attacked by 2 or 3 AI guys at once that you weren't expecting, always move in group because when there's a fight you always want to have superior number.
Having less troops than the AI means you'll lose a couple of guys (and hope they will not die once back to the camp or get a character crippling injury).
- the AI is set to capture wyrdstones as long as it does not see you, so if you are ready to wait you can leave the AI go after the too far away/inconvenient wyrdstones stashes , and when they'll come with you chances are that they're affected by a few warp malus and be easier to defeat.
Killing those guys also allow you to loot all the wyrdstones they scavenged, basically you can make the AI work for you
(but it can take time).
Note that once the AI spot one of your troopers, they will all come (out of a few AI being stuck because of whatever bug the devs left unfixed) to attack your guys.
AI being stuck can usually be solved by doing a "Save and Quit" and reloading that save.
- on some mission there's only 1 area in which all the wyrdstones will be, considering as long as the AI does not spot you it will always go for the wyrdstone (unless a guy of theirs is stuck in a bug) , you can then predict roughly where the AI will be and move accordingly
- there's a mission type "The Haunter in Darkness" that can spawn on the campaign map, in which both warbands members are "randomly scattered" around the map.
So unless you don't mind losing troopers avoid this one or at least play it when it's spawning on Normal difficulty to not lose troops.
Reason is that the AI will nearly always gang on your weaker trooper on turn 1 because conveniently "scattered in random location" my ass.
- always choose the "Launch and Deploy" option that allow you to position your troops where you prefer, (rancom scattered does not allow you that by the way) so you can avoid letting the AI position your troop itself and conveniently choosing to move them in the worst location possible
- don't underestimate the "Delay" ability, it cost 1 blue gem but when you have a magic user in your warband you want him to shoot magic at the enemy, not wait until next turn after choosing dodge or parry because you didn't saw the AI when it was your magic user time to play, and said guy appeared just after mocking you.
- the game is way harder on the beginning so don't worry at fist if you lose it's normal, because after your troops improve in levels and when you start to get blue weapons and equipment , and have taught your troops a few usefull skills, the advantages and cheat the devs gave to the AI matter noticably a -lot- less even when you're not lucky in dice rolls.
During the course of the game, by example you can hire level 0 troops again and give them the advanced equipment you had on your higher level guys, you'll notice how your level 0 warband will destroy the AI now (the AI will always match your warband composition so your level 0 guys will face level 0 AI guys)
- you may be worried by the Shipment Request that comes up every X days as the amount always increase with your warband ranks.
But again don't worry, while your warband increase in rank you'll notice there are more and more clusters (very high priced wyrdstone type) to be found on each battlefield. And you automatically gather a % of the items and wyrdstones still untouched (depending on your amount of still alive and the map difficulty) if you win a mission.
At max rank the Shipment Request can reach up to 400 weight, but by that time you'll easily collect that weight in 4 or 5 days only
Just sell the rest to the other factions and your warband will swim in money, good time to teach expansive skills and spells
- several heroes of the "Cult of Possessed" faction can be given Armband items, meaning those will ignore the parry ability of your troopers, be sure to be prepared (always have 1 or 2 dodge specialist, or train more +dodge skills when you can) Or choose as much stats as possible (and train skills active or passive) that give +Melee Resistance so it will make attack in melee missing you more.
The skaven Impressive class of unit can be given Bracer item that additionally ignore Parry too, the random roaming Daemons you can find sometime in Brutal/Deadly difficulty mission can ignore Parry (except the Plaguebearer that can be parried)
But Parry works wonderfully for the many other enemies and some character have some good counter attacks when parrying (the mercs leader can become a parry and counter attack monster able to solo most enemies)
- the AI will always go for the weaker of your troopers, or the most injured one, always, so either take advantage of it or make sure to have the weaker guy protected by your other guys control zone so you don't sure-lose it (don't try to hide him, the AI will always know where all your guys are when it has spotted you once).