To answer your questions:
-Hephastus sword only gives one rune once. Defeat some dragon stack, take the rune out.
-Order magic 3. I see you have not played against gremlion yet. His magic attack does 3000-4000/round (I think), evil towers do magic damage, although lot less. In the other words, you need magic resistance. Droids start with -50%, equip chaos crown +50%, mirror shield +20%, professor Dambior regalia +25%, medal +7%, upgraded magician cowl +20% (or 30?), maybe crystal ball, leather dress... In my game, due to limited number of fights I had only some of them, my magic resistance was 23% - not good enough. Only way to raise magic resistance is to cast divine armor, which costs 25mana. Believe you cannot win against gremlion otherwise. Since your mana as warrior will be total of cca 50, It requires everything working like clock - calm rage, magic spring etc.
- Archer description in this game truly sucks. Not all ranged creatures are classed as archers, and even those who have archer written in their skill chart do not get all archer bonuses. Similarly with companion Trigger giving bonus to only certain archers, same with telescopic set.
-Alchemists are not a major thread. Where magic dealers are major threat, physical dealers just nuissance, alchemists are somewhere in the middle. Huge stack can cause decent damage via fire bomb, plus aftereffects, plus reduced statistics. Poison damage is not that bad, but still, you only have 80% resistance compared to 95% physical.
-I believe enemy armies are set at the beginning, regardless of your army, or your level when you get to them
have fun
