Lookin for help, no loss

[prune]

I've been doing a fair bit of reading on the no loss strategies here but cannot figure it all out in-game. I just don't understand how you're meant to survive and keep your sanity in the early game.

Playing a paladin, and I have 45 mana at level 5. I'm simply trying to take on things that are a match even but run out of mana. I need 20 for the ressurection on my gryphons, say, or 20 for Gift on the Inquisitors, but the problem is with regenerating the mana. I use Magic spring, but it's so unreliable and it's not a failsafe method. For example, leaving a small amount of some ranged unit alive, it may decide to go for any of my stacks, thus I have no guarantee of getting mana back, let alone making above and beyond the 5 to cast it. I actually went to something silly like turn 92 in one battle.

This is insanity, and maybe I should just lay off, but I'm pretty obsessed with getting this done...Everything was fine in the very early game, just using vampires and archmages to handle things, but then the vampires, being limited in number with no sacrifice, outlived their usefullness and I could not ensure they made it with no losses in each battle.

I can imagine the mid-late game is fine too with Lina's chargers/Inquisitor holy anger, but the current point is frustrating me endlessly. I do not understand how loreangelicus did this, as stated in http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=9817&highlight=sacrifice+casualties where he claims (and I'm sure he did) you can kill most stacks in Darion pre-freedom isles.

It's just the mana regen that is destroying me, I don't have concentration, but I think that might be a better option instead of magic spring.

What am I missing?...

[ShuiMienLung]

What I've found to be effective is:
1a) either use high-HitPoint creatures who can survive several rounds of Sleem's poison cloud, or
1b) use expendable creatures (Dryad or Royal Thorn summonses, for example), and
1c) have TWO of these stacks;
2) have them standing next to the last creature stack (which is no-retaliation for preference, but not required) when their turns end;
3) at the END of one turn, on your last creature's action, cast Magic Spring on one of the stacks, then
4) use Sleem to summon his poison cloud over that Magic Spring'd creature and end the turn;
* [cloud fires a round of damage, triggering Magic Spring];
5) at the BEGINNING of the next turn cast Magic Spring on the OTHER ONE of those two stacks who are standing near the enemy, and
** watch each of the rounds of cloud damage give you +10 mana: one from each of the two Magic Spring'd creatures.

Especially if the last remaining enemy creature is no-retaliation, you can milk this situation for mana until the cows come home.

.

.

Also, once you do have Lina and the Chargers ability, you can use her multiple times in the course of the battle to spit out more chargers. If you want to, you can leave them sit there (just walk around, although note that this will eat into your units' mobility) until you NEED that charge of Rage or Mana. This is most useful in a castle combat, for example, where there is a little "wing" to the left and right side that you can back an enemy unit into. (Again, works best with a no-retaliation enemy OR you post a hibernating bear in front of some other unit.) Then the rest of the playing field can feel free to get filled up with Lina's chargers.

.

.

Lastly, remember that you can use the Reaper's ability of Time Back not only to restore a unit, but also abilities. So you can (for example):
- start with your stack of Inquisitors;
- use their Resurrection ability (bring back your dead Dragons, say);
- cast Sacrifice on them this turn (bring back some Undead, say);
- cast Sacrifice on them NEXT turn (more Undead);
- Reaper does Time Back to the beginning of THIS TURN... when they have NOT been Sacrificed and they have NOT used Resurrection;
- you use Resurrection again.

With enough Rage--which is given to you by Inquisitors' other ability--you can get essentially unlimited use of their Resurrection ability.