Thanks from saving me from double-posting...
How did I play impossible with 2/3 distortion? The same way I completed KBtL at impossible without almost using distortion or even order magic: I try to build up intelligence, mana and above all mana restoration as quick as possible, I pick some very resilient units (before lvl 5 becomes largely available I used droids, splitting the repair units in two separate stacks so that they could repair each other) to minimize losses, and then I nuke away with fire rain. Obviously an amulet of fire storm (or two, as I got in KBtL) is welcome. For the larger stacks of enemies I use the pet's lightning (reaper's soul draining in KBtL) and that's it. The battles on Elon and Nameless were brainless pushovers, those on Reha barely required an effort. Then, however, I had to dig quite deep to get K'Tahu down and finally, silly me not to imagine it, I find out Baal is resistant to fire...
I used the cheat to bring distortion to 3/3 but it didn't make a noticeable difference. True, with stone skin + divine armor my paladins take little damage, but that means I have nothing left to damage with. As a result, after 10 rounds I had still about 70 paladins standing, surrounded by executioners and archdemons, with Baal "down" to 140,000
I had to resort to doubling repeatedly my pals to win...
One of these days I am going to replay from the start, but honestly I don't see how a mage can win on impossible, let alone the no loss wins I read about on the forum. Mind you, I am not saying it can't be done without cheating, I am just saying I can't see HOW it can be done.