Oh... My version is the Gift bag. You should download it and install it from the stickied post by Nike-it. It is an official 1c Christmas bonus to the game's supporters, it doesn't hurt the game at all and it adds a few more interesting items - nothing too groundbreaking, I can assure you.
EDIT: besides, collecting the new items is a lot of fun
I even managed to get a composite artifact, and I was very happy about it. Some more fun and some extra content (as long as it doesn't favor a class or hurt the game) is always a good thing.
As for the scan, I did. I had to ensure I get some basic items and spells (and since this is my first playthrough with the Gift Bag, I wanted to see how many new items were there) if I am to do such a playthrough. Well, that's not the first one - back in the russian version 1.2 I did one with 46% spellbook usage, no kiting, 15 days, and still got the spells I needed. The thing is, you can go very far on poison skull, flaming arrow and fireball alone, and 2 of those you already have at start. They are extremely cheap (flaming arrow is 5 mana on lvl 3, Fireball is 20 mana on lvl 3, Poison Skull is 10 mana on lvl 3) and can be spammed without much of a worry. I actually started using geyser around lvl 35 (even though I had it earlier), because it is 20-30-40 mana and that was a bit too much for my liking - hence the wicked number of flaming arrow/fireball casts in the Fire Mage medal (actually, they are a lot more, because the game stops counting after round 10).
Well, even if an enemy army has ranged units, it isn't that much of a grief, you just need to prioritize. If they inflict physical damage, you need to start bashing them with spells right away (because the BD has 20% physical resistance). If they are 2 stacks - flaming arrow on each one on round 1, so that they can suffer even more when the burning post-effect triggers. On round 2, poison skull on each of them, so that their numbers get reduced even further by the 2 post effects. Against ranged units with magic damage, simply check the enemy army and prioritize again. With the high magic resistance of the black dragon, even if the enemy stack is big, the damage will be quite low (maybe less than 100), which gives you more than enough time to deal with the enemy army as you see fit.
As for the turns, I never had an ordinary battle go above turn 25. Only the boss battles went way too far.
The summoned troops do not seem to count as spellbook damage and they show in the end as my own army (if you check the screens you will see undead spiders, ghosts, bone dragons and such - I never bought such troops, but I was experimenting with necro call a little). I used Black Dragons + Black Knights + 1 Emerald Green Dragon you get for free, who barely saw any fighting - I offloaded it straight away in Verona, Duke Delaware's Castle, as it compromised my tactics and I had to babysit it all the time.
You should try it. It won't hurt to scan your file to ensure some challenge and good time. A game is supposed to be fun and it is supposed to help you relax. This is why I have no remorse using the scanner - since my spare time is short, I'd rather do a game in which I know everything's going to work than waste 30-40 hours for naught and feel ripped off in the end... It's unproductive