Arms and Armor battle training

I compare this game to chess because each of the fighters is like a chess piece. Melee fighters are like the pawns. They are in the first row of attack. However, in battles there is a lot of waiting. They would wait days, weeks, even months before they would make there first move. But what I did was I took all my fighters at the start and just ran at my enemies. If I was to do this again I would take my archers and shoot first before I take out my melee fighters. When I did that I lost a lot of my fighters. I think if I stayed back I would have a lot less deaths and more kills.