I'm up to level 11 now and slogging through Freedom Islands. I have cleared out the West, which is unusual because some of the hardest enemies are on the main continent. But they're gone now.
The Banner of True Faith was even better than I realised. It is 10 MIND runes, not Magic, so that really helped me with my green rune problem. As I'm concerned about money, I took Trophies 2 and Reserve 1. I've already got Trade 3, so hopefully money won't be a problem from now on. I've got about 160,000 gold but I had noticed that my money had plateaued. With 20% more gold after combat it must be a similar amount to what you get on Hard after fights.
Ice Snake 3 is such a wonderful spell at this stage. Not only does it deal over 2000 damage (including splash damage) at 15 Intellect, but it slows the enemies down as well. You just need some good ranged stacks to pick them off...
And I finally had a go at Sacrifice. I found 5 Royal Thorns somewhere and used Thorn Hunters to increase the stack from 5/14 to 14/14. Is this what I'm supposed to do with Sacrifice? I haven't got Hypnosis yet. Royal Thorns seem very nice but I haven't got any modifiers for them (I hear there is a Thorn Crown or something). Question about Sacrifice, if I increase the stack to beyond its cap it will revolt against me right? So what's the point of that?