So, the new Vanhammer 2.0 is HARD.

Auto battles will leave your army hurt. Manual Battles are harder. Ai are given massive buffs and recruit well. How to cope?

1. Customize Starting Units - at turn 1, click your main army. You can click the 2 arrow button to redo your entire army. You'll get refunded a certain amount and can spend everything on the highest tier units. Just be careful, or you'll have nothing for building upgrades or recruiting new units for a few turns.

2. Purple Hammer Coins vs A Helping Hand - on turn 2, you'll get a "Spin the Wheel" pop up. This adds a roguelike element to the start. Do you want to risk it for any random legendary items from fusing 2 purple coins? Or just play it safe and take the "Helping Hand" Item?
- highly recommend taking the Helping Hand the first time around. Next playthrough, you could lower difficulty settings and take the purple coins, for some fun rng playthroughs.

3. Get Lightning Strike. Double up Armies when attacking to keep auto battles in your favor. Max Campaign Movement. Cover your ass with a small army back home. Make allies, watch out for attrition (it really hurts now), and don't over extend your army.

4. Cheat Commands - Yes, it's cheating. But it'll help you gain your first province. Use the Console Commands button at the top near your main menu button. Use "Heal 100", "heal 1" to change army's health percentages, use "kill" to destroy armies, and use "tp" or "mov" or "give gold"