Smoother normal game play - warrior, paladin, or mage

[Harlekin]

Hi all!

I started a hard warrior, because I basically rampaged through The Legend on normal difficulty, so I thought I need some challange. Well, I got it. I got so much I'm stucked

I completeley cleared the starting island, Scarlet Wind, and Bolo, and almost everything at Rusty Anchor. But I don't stand a chance at Verona, I totally got pwned there. So I went back to Rusty, sacrificed my army for a new navigation chart, but useless, because a) don't have enough money to fully refill my army b) I got pwned at those other two islands too...

I clearly do something wrong, because while you guys doing 7-day-no loss runs on impossible, I'm happy if I have the half of the army after a battle which I've had before.

I'm level 14, my army:
-2 evil beholders, so that i can put to sleep two stacks of units
- royal snakes
- ancient bears
- polar bears