Paladin need help....

[Misery]

I'm playing paladin on Hard difficulty..and it has been more or less ok until recently I find out that gold is very hard to come by. I've played the previous game and have no trouble on the economy at all(play as mage). KBAP,however,put me on dilemma several times when I ran out of both troops and gold. I can't purchase any of those decent items either, since I needed the cash for recruitment. Now I'm stuck on the third island with nowhere to go because every mobs here is on "invincible/lethal" level and all I have are a bunch of pirates who got wiped out pretty easily.(and yes, I've already kited every possible spot for items and gold)

Another thing is that it seems, quite contrary to the first game, there's not much undead enemies early this time around..and paladin are said to be best at dealing with undeads...?

Also how do you acquire those bonus leadership medal as a paladin ? I've put my runes in order magic trees(which so far doesn't have much usefulness) and have absolutely no way to prevent the loss.. should I reroll a warrior or mage ?