The first step in learning to fight is to watch the auto fights. Choose your troops, then hit 'fight'. Once on the battlefield screen, look at the bottom buttons. Far left is a sword; hover and it says 'finish battle automatically'. Click there and you can watch the auto fight. Note: At the top will be a red 'battle results' button. Do not click that as it will automatically finish the fight and you won't see the rest of it. Also, next to the sword is a button with 1 > . Click that until it reaches 3 >>> and that will make the troops move as fast as possible.
Troop placement can be very important. Usually you want your troops to line up directly across from the enemy unit you want them to focus on. On the screen where you pick troops, you do this by putting a specific troop in the slot above the enemy troop you want it to focus on.
Note: They won't always go for that enemy unit first. A lot depends on initiative and range of your troops and the enemy troops. For now, putting them opposite each other and watching has the highest chance of successful outcomes.
Choosing troop types can be challenging.
Try these two things:
1) Visualize that the troop you are examining is weakest against the 2 troops to their left and strongest against the troops to their right. So a Mage is weakest against light melee and light range while strongest against heavy melee and heavy range. Heavy range is weakest against mages and Heavy Melee and strongest against light melee and light rage, and so on.
2) Barracks troops have the same strength or weakness against each type it unit it faces, while Training Guild troops and Merchant troops have an additional advantage over one or the other of the troops it is strongest against. So TG mage is even stronger against Heavy Range while MC mage is additionally strong against Heavy Melee. Therefore, if facing heavy range and a mage is called for, the Barracks Mage will suffer heavier losses than the TG Mage which will kill the enemy faster because of its advantage and so give the enemy units less opportunity to strike back.
Barracks troops suffer greater losses in any fight than the specialty troops of the TG or MC, even with fighting buildings deployed.
Fighting on the computer is easier than on a phone because you get a lot more information. If you hover over one of your troops you get a pop up what troops your fighter is best against. The better they are against an opponent, the more stars (crossed swords) will show up. The same thing happens when you hover over the enemy troops. Also, when you hover over your fighter the corresponding enemy troop that it is best against will be highlighted. These visual clues are helpful.
Here is an actual fight:
LR (hellhound) X2
HM (Orc General) X1
HM (Brave Knight) X1
LR (nasty thief) X1
When hovering over Barracks Mage, he is 4 stars against the 2HM enemies. But two of the LR enemies are 5 stars against the Barracks Mage, so don't use that. (Hellhounds are absolute murder on priests.) When hover over the LR, he is also 4 stars against the enemy HM and the 3 LR are only 3 or 4 stars against him. My HM is also 4 stars against the 3 enemy LM units but only even against the enemy HM. In Training grounds, the LR is 5 stars against the enemy HM units and the HM is 5 stars against the 3 enemy LM units. The mercenary camp is no help in this one. So use the training grounds 3LR and 2 HM placed directly opposite the enemy that are best against on the troop selection screen.
