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===== Selecting Your Army =====
Like Chess, Sleeping Dragons is a game of near infinite possibility. You can very much choose the kind of play style that suits you best and tune your Army toward that. Want to be incredibly aggressive, launching attacks and magic combinations every other turn? You can do that. Want to shut down everything your opponent does with magic, and slowly take control of the entire board? Go for it. 

When selecting your Army's pieces consider how each one may coordinate with another. A Chariot and a General work extremely well together as an attacking pair, for example. 

(Normal types)

The General moves like a Silver General from Shogi, except two spaces instead of one. Diagonally two, or forward two. It makes a great defender or attacker, and support for attacks with other pieces.

The Hare is tricky and elusive, but has close-up blind spots. 

The Horse is a Chess Knight who can also move diagonally a single space. It is a powerful and tricky hybrid piece.

The Bullfrog jumps over one space in any direction, or moves back one. It too is elusive, but with close-up blind spots.

The Bear is an excellent defender, and unsuspecting attacker or support piece. It coordinates very well with the General. Counterpart piece to the Chariot.

The Chariot is an excellent attacker, and unsuspecting defender or support piece. It coordinates very well with the General.

(Specialty types)

The Mage has short movement range, but compensates with excellent magic. Most colored armies should probably have a Mage.

The Battlemage has a great moveset and range, and excellent magic which is typically offensive. This piece is a strong "all-rounder" you won't regret using.

The Snake is very tricky, and can infiltrate defenses or escape and retreat with ease, combined with deadly magic, you can't go wrong with a Snake.

The Leopard has a powerful and somewhat tricky moveset. It shines most when the board is more open. Counterpart piece to the Wolf. 

The Wolf is powerful and tricky, and shines most when the board is open. 

The Battlemage, Snake, Leopard, and Wolf are the "power pieces" of the game. The Queens. The Mage is the Army's protector that annoys your enemy and makes your goals easier to achieve, but use them carefully as they cannot retreat quickly.

When you have a good idea of the type of strategy you want to go for, and have selected the pieces for your Army, it's time to choose between Pawns or Tokins. One may fit your strategy best. I.E. if you know you're going to play defensively, Tokins are probably your best choice. But it is also important to consider the movement of your Army in this decision. Do most of your pieces move diagonally? Choosing Pawns means those also move Diagonally, and your opponent could easily exploit weaknesses on straight lines. If most of them have diagonal movements, Tokins are a good choice to round out your weaknesses. Conversely if most of your pieces have orthogonal movement (side to side, and up and down) you may want to choose Pawns for the same reason, to cover more diagonal weaknesses.

If you're playing a multi-colored format this is the point you want to choose color variants of your pieces. Which variation has the best spells to suit your strategy? Blue variations tend to have magic focused on Buffing piece movement, Sorcery and Ice elemental, and Counter magic. Red variations have magic focused on Fire sorcery, different kinds of piece buffs, it can be very aggressive. Yellow uses Debuff spells, Toxic sorcery, and anti-magic. This may suit aggressive or defensive strategies well, and does not have elements that interact with Fire or Ice.

Alternatively you could look through all the color variations and select your pieces based exclusively on the spells they cast, then look for the best way to arrange those pieces. This is different from the order outlined above, but completely valid if you are trying to focus more on spell usage.