regarding previous post about starting with ancient amulet.
I seriously doubt amulet can spawn in treasures in first 3-4 islands, Verona onwards maybe? So you'd have to buy it, that's 50000. Don't forget you do not have dragon for digging. Until i reached verona i only bought officer baton, snake boots (very important), sone skon scroll and some magic ring. Did not have more than 40000 until Verona, so ancient amulet would be affordable alone after clearing maybe 3 islands.
Druid combo. Maybe my comment on them was a bit harsh, I used them for armies consisting of mainly walkers, then discovered good old setup eventhough weaker (original just 4 r.thorns, 5 archmagi, max snakes,paladins,inquisitors) worked, so i did not look back. traps + fear spell + favorable battlefield setup were the key. Sometimes i had to lure the enemy all around the map in order to find good setup
Btw. since we playing without 5th level creatures, guess what i found right in the beginning in debir castle. -20% req. for red dragons