I got the impression from the notes that combat would be more difficult, but the orc (and crab) battle before reaching Cyseal were extremely easy.
I accept that the crab battle is easy because it's the first fight (although I do think it could stand to be a tad more challenging), but the orc assault on the beach seemed easier than I've ever seen it in past iterations.
I think the main problem with that particular fight is the guards (who are your allies). They're just too deadly (and possibly too many). Together they can swarm one of the targets in that encounter and bring it down in a single round, usually with enough action points remaining to move on to the next target. In the time I spent killing one and a half foes, they mopped up everything else.
