It's impossible to play on Hard

[eXeel]

Maybe an overstatement, but alas I feel troubled in my mage-game.

I've reached the 4th island, and killed a few troops there. But the rest are lethal.
On the 3rd island, I still have the cave with sentry robots in it, and maybe a ship too.
On the second island, I almost cleared it.
First island is all clean.

I find it hard to progress. Moving around to find just one to beat. Am I too safe, when I don't attack if I'll lose 10 percent or more of my army? I have around 70,000 gold and it slowly rises.

Should I accept more loses or continue to try and lose under 10 percent?
I have no ressurection spell found...