It feels like my troops are unnecessary for quite awhile; and tha my heroes can solo to improve without any real need for troops to help them for quite awhile.

maybe i'm building my heroes with not enoug magic traits; or i'm using too many of the strong opening builds designed to work wtihout troops.  Working up thru the difficuly levels now, at expert I think.  Just took out most of a nation, pretty mcuh with my 2 heroes soloing.  It feels like the AI should've been able to defend vs that better.

I imagine it's also cuz I tend to not go deep into the war path early.  The war path seems expensive to get anywhere in; and it's usually better to go thru civics or magic for quite awhile first; even moreso when your champs are strong.  I wanted to add some ranged support, but archers just take so long to get to, so I used crystal on some ranged staffs which are much easier to tech for.