When you do fight, your hero and army are dropped onto a hex-based tactical map based on the strategic map--wooded strategic areas seemed to have more woods on the tactical map, swampy areas had more swamps, etc. This part of the game is pretty standard TBS tactical combat. Each of your units has attack and defense ratings, some have ranged attacks, there are spells to cast, healing to be done, and lots of other special effects that can affect combat. Your hero is part of the general melee, so having a Warrior that can wade in and deal some damage can really pull your bacon out of the fire.
Combat is not limited to taking over neutral (or enemy) areas, however. Every time you conquer an area it is marked as being only partially explored. It may start at, say, 15 percent explored. Your hero can then take an action to do further exploration on a turn. When this happens, the “explored percentage” of the area goes up, which is nice as the more an area is explored, the more resources it might provide. The other thing that happens is that your hero can find sites to have an adventure in (say, an abandoned temple or a strange-looking cave). The hero and his army can fight the inhabitants of this site to get stuff (magic swords, money) and experience points.
Yes, experience points. Both your hero and his units can get experience points and level up, getting appropriate benefits (increased damage, more hit points, etc). This adds the usual conundrums about quality/quantity, troop rotations, and the like.
