Questions and problems with difficulty

[slashCo]

Hello guys, I know the game is a bit old now (although not as old as some other games I still play, heh heh) and maybe there aren't as many people on the forums, but I thought I'd ask anyway. I recently bought Crossworlds and started a game of AP with the Orcs expansion, but I am finding it extremely hard.

I cleared out the beginning few islands (Bolo, Scarlet Wind and Rusty Anchor) but now I'm at the continent of Verona and it seems like I've hit a wall. Every enemy stack I meet is rated "lethal" or "invincible", not to mention enemy heroes who are level 40 while I am around 16???

I can still fight some of these stacks, but not without losing half my army in the process, and I'm running out of money and troops.

I'm playing on normal difficulty with a paladin. I was hoping to rely on the Resurrection spell as I did in KB:TL, but I haven't found it yet and don't know if I ever will. This randomness is annoying sometimes.

Should I restart on easy with a mage? It seems, from what I've read here, that the mage is the overpowered class while the other two are not as great.