King's Bounty (Gameplay #4)
3After having spent some 20 hours with King's Bounty so far, I think I'm slowly getting the hang of it. The trick is to choose your fights wisely (i.e. cowardly) in order to minimize losses to your armies and, above all, to steal absolutely everything in the environment which isn't sufficiently protected by wandering monsters and enemy heroes. Whereas in games like Heroes of Might & Magic defeating enemy groups is often a necessary evil in order to gain access to precious resources and make progress in the world, combat in King's Bounty should only take place on your terms; when the time is absolutely right and you can make sure to maximize XP/gold acquisition in accordance with a strict "no pain, high gain" model. Wasting gold and troops on a challenging encounter can be the beginning of a dangerous downward spiral which, while not unavoidable, can really suck the enjoyment out of the gameplay experience.
Gaining access to magical creatures which level up alongside your main character and are capable of unleashing devastating and/or incredibly useful special powers was also an eye-opening experience, as it opens up new cool possibilities even for heroes such as mine which are relatively weak on Magic.