Well, my first game ended badly.

[CurtisJasper]

My first game is also a mage on normal.
2nd Island=Scarlet Wind, right? What is your leadership/level? Mine was 748/6 at the time, and most enemies conned between slightly weaker to very strong at the time, with a few heroes being lethal. I'm pretty sure "lethal" is the same as overpowering from the first game though, btw, so a mage who makes good use of her spells against the right combination of "lethal" opponents can get out unscathed.

It does look like this game might be a bit more challenging than the first (especially for a mage), but I personally like that.