[MaxWilson]

1.) Click (or is it right-click?) on a unit's leadership stat to view the breakdown. By default, only the regular leadership is displayed, but it may turn out that a "Leadership: 10" guy also has 100 undead leadership and 50 magical being leadership (for leading elementals, statues, etc.).

2.) It doesn't quite cancel out--resisting a trample uses defense but not the attacker's attack. Same thing for spells like Earthquake, they'll be slightly more effective in swampy terrain because there's a defense check.

3.) Me, personally? Not until I get some SCs or booster items, unless I get into an early war. The only thing I tend to use gems for early on is site-searching for more gems. Edit: oh, yeah. And making skull mentors/lightless lanterns/owl quills.

4.) Usually I designate my starting commander. If I'm playing a nation with H3 priests I may wait and prophetize one to get an H4, or if my nation has good thuggable commanders I may prophetize one of those instead, or one with more mobility than the starting commander (e.g. flying) to lead sacred troops. If he dies, you can prophetize a new one five months later or so so it's not a big deal unless you're in a war or don't have any other priests.

5.) Occasionally I will build fortresses right next to each other. That's only if I'm using them as real fortresses and not as factories. The advantage there is that you can build one turn at one fortress and directly attack a sieging force the next turn at the other. It reduces your resources but gives a stronger defensive situation.

8.) Cavalry do have better defense and lower encumbrance than other units. That makes them potentially useful in castle battles even though they can't really flank.

-Max