I've got no idea how he does that, kennec.
My game is a struggle, pure and simple. But I am determined NOT to just grind my way through the game taking moderate losses in every battle. There is also a money issue that I think might become serious if I allow myself to lose too many troops in Kordar.
I've abandoned any hope of a high score, i.e. I am resigned to having to do a lot of air/sea travel to improve my chances. So instead of trying to grind through Kordar with my faily crappy team (like 9000 leadership and pretty miserable stats, maybe around 12-14 for Attack, Defense and Intellect) I decided to go to Ellinia.
Finally, in Ellinia, I had SOME luck, but not much. The place is teeming with Sprites/Lake Fairies/Dryads to hire, which is a relief, because there were no Lake Fairies in my last game. Basically I am going for the super-elf with Anga's Ruby team. Unfortunately, I can't equip half of the crappy items I have due to the stupid dwarven wife having the wrong slots. And she's so ugly. The obvious thing to do would be to get the elf wife, but I had a problem. Sneaking through Ellinia is easy, but to get the elf wife you have to destroy four stacks. Three of these were Strong but the fourth was Overwhelming, and had about 10 Black Dragons in it!
So I couldn't get past that without heavy losses. No elf wife for now.
I travelled to the Land of the Dead too to pick stuff up and touch the obelisk. I think I have them all now except the one in Kordar (there is one in Kordar, right? Hopefully in Ardan's Peaks? I can't remember). So hopefully I will at least complete that quest.
So it's day 18 and I'm STILL bogged down in Kordar. No Sacrifice or Resurrection means I will have to go through it with nearly zero losses.
EDIT: I finally made some real progress! My elven team is the best, much better than anything from the humans or demons, not to mention the useless undead. Elves rock in this game. And I don't even have the Elf wife or the Dwarven Telescope equipped yet (stupid dwarf wife can't equip it and I've got to have Anga's Ruby). All game I have been really struggling with melee type units such as Mirabella + Sea Dogs and then later my Dwarven team. I have never had much time for the Dwarves either.
Elves though? My goodness. Lake Fairies/Sprites/Dryads/Elven Archers/Hunters + Anga's Ruby + Dwarven Telescope =
WIN I just cleared out most of the upper parts of Kordar with one team, losing small numbers of Sprites etc in each fight. I was able to defeat the Giant Spider with zero losses. I was able to win the first AND second double fight easily. That's a total of 5 of each type of rune right there. With Tactics 2 and Anga's Ruby equipped, the flying elves can attack on the other side of the map before the enemy has a chance to move (I've upgraded Outslaught too). Then I realised that I could use Phantom to create a second stack of Dryads, which can be used to Lullaby things when they wake up from the first Lullaby. This made the double fights absurdly easy, as of course Lake Fairies and Sprites are level 1 units, and fall asleep easily. This was awesome.
Elves are the best units in the game, partly because Anga's Ruby is for female fighters and 3 of 4 female units in the game are Elves. And two of the best ranged units are elves too. When I finish with Kordar, I will be able to get the elven wife and equip the telescope. Then it will be domination time. I saw Fire Rain in the Land of the Dead and I have finally made it to Chaos Magic. I'm up to 300,000 gold finally (after very little for most of the game) and I can see that things are going to get easier from now on.