well, generally the first place that cyclops can appear as a recruitable unit is in the mines, which is a long way away from your current position in the game...
I can tell you this though. Never start a game where you are underpowered, with bad artifacts and spells unless you are willingly seeking a challenge, especially on impossible. You can get all you need in a game, but you need to be downright lucky. You may be hard pressed to compromise. I did reroll my paladin on impossible, but this time I did it right. I replayed the academy test a few times till I got off to a good start. By that I mean 2 good artifacts (+4 atk and +4 int for 50k each, giving 10 might/magic runes after 50 victories), a shield for 300 leadership, a belt for 150 leadership, +100 leadership regalia and a helm with +4 def, along with a nice big stack of knights (17, I found 4 more in the tavern in the swamps) in the horsemen camp. Although I'm lacking sacrifice, gift and magic spring spells, I'm positive they'll turn out somewhere. I also have only 26 inquisitors and only 8 horsemen, but let's hope I'll get more somewhere, or the sacrifice spell will come up sooner.
That I consider a good start of the game
