Quite a few basic noob questions.

[ShadowXOR]

Note that I'm familiar with turn-based strategy games and I read the instruction book/searched around the forums before posting this. I've never played Heroes of Might & Magic or King's Bounty so some of these concepts are new to me. Note that I'm playing on the normal difficulty as a Paladin.

1. I'm tired of constantly going back for reinforcements. On average, what is an acceptable percentage of units to lose per battle, and after how many battles should I return for reinforcements? Does this aspect of the game ever get less repetitive?

2. What difficulty level of monster is it best to fight? Weak monsters provide boring battles with little gold or experience. Strong monsters provide more experience and gold but often cause great troop loss requiring me to reinforce more often. Should I try to stick to only battles containing slightly weaker, match, and slightly stronger opponents? Or do the greater gains from difficult fights offset the losses I'll incur?

3. Equipment appears geared towards certain races, why should I focus on Human equipment, when I could use Neutral equipment that benefits all troops? Should I try to rarely sell items since I'll be swapping armor depending on who's in my army? Should I avoid using different races within my army at any one time?

4. With so few slots to store spare troops, how do you keep unit variety interesting or adjust your army without dismissing a large chunk of units you paid for to swap out for another?

5. How do you know when you're strong enough to fight a battle against one of your items to upgrade it? I tried once and got totally destroyed.

6. I don't want to miss anything. Are there "points of no return" in this game where you can't go back to an area you were at previously? Or where you can miss important items by not doing something right? No spoilers please.

Thanks a lot for any help! I know it's kind of an old game but it seems great.