I'll have to try that out. Kiting away map guards is very tricky, and requires a good save and a nice mouse
On a side note, Verona was full of stipud units too (very few horsemen, tons of imps, peasants, bears, archers, priests, assassins, swordsmen, guardsmen, etc. - no knights, no paladins, no emerald dragons, no nothing), but I did find archmagi and druids, and then more Royal Thorns when I beat up the wife of the barbarian (her army is stronger and her flame arrow is weaker, so more XP this way). Now with Paladins, Druids, Royal Thorns, Inquisitors and Archmagi things look a lot different. Besides, with 54 total battles, all of them without losses, a nice heap of cash is forming.
So it's all the matter of not giving up and finding ways to do it.