Combat system perspective from a new player

[Mykan]

Yes, definitely.
First, as Soggy mentioned, tournaments squad sizes will be good. You just need the right tournament.
Second, you should find yourselves with surplus supplies in those eras so building troops is a great sink and the troops auto-upgrade when you get to the promotion techs.
Third the squad sizes for battlefields grows, a lot of time, so stocking up on troops as your able to will ensure you have a good fighting force by the time you are able to use them. Assuming you have any left over from tournaments, but either way you win.

 

[DeletedUser7903]

I agree with Carradon that opposing forces should be whittled down. I expanded quickly, looking forward to more of the combat feature of the game, only to be greatly disappointed. Still, whittling gets me into repeated losing contests. Balancing the combat opportunities for the player would remain an on-going issue for players, perpetuating the disincentive to ever use combat.

Another option would be to also adjust existing enemy forces at the point when a player reaches a scouting treasure chest. Existing explored provinces could be readjusted to more closely match the player's troop levels, re-enabling combat.

Readjusting enemy forces could create the problem of players expanding too quickly, so reducing enemy forces would need to be balanced with another restraint such as increasing the cost of the negotiation fees, or making combat more even, but adding the possibility of unknown opponents popping up in combat, causing very occasional losses, where victory seemed assured. You shouldn't always be able to see everyone in the province until you attack, ensuring more lost troops and some game-balancing delays.

 

[The Unbeliever]

Woot! First post!

Anyways, I help my dad with his fighting. He recently began a brand new city on the Sinya Arda (however you spell it!) US server, and I was very pleasantly surprised by the fact that we now get a decently sized starting army - especially getting some Heavy Infantry included!

Ch.1 was possible to fight at least the first ring of provinces, if you wait until you have researched ALL the available 'Squad Size' upgrades!
Unfortunately, he's the type who just blindly scouts ahead, because "patience" in his words, 'is a Klingon swear word'!;P
This made fighting in Ch.2 all but impossible, even with all the available squad size upgrades.

However, by Ch.3 (I encouraged him to slow down his scouting and to stay within the so-called 'Goldielocks zone', despite his protestations about the game now being super slow to get anything done...), AND, again waiting until he'd researched all the available squad size upgrades, fighting became doable. (and he was still over scouted by 5 or 6 provinces)

So while it's by no means easy, outside of the 6-10th provinces of Ch.1, and perhaps the latter end of Ch.2, fighting should be doable provided you wait until *after* gaining all the available squad size upgrades.
Sure it means that those initial chapters take longer to complete, as you end up relying on just the 24hr KP's, but mix in some tournament fighting + rewards, (which btw is super easy through Ch1-3!), and perhaps buy just a few extra, and the system is fair'ish enough.

Sure it could be better, but overall, even Elvenar's "let's gak all over the players" fights are still nothing vs. say, the ridiculously unfair AI from games like Fire Emblem!