some questions

[Vulture]

Congratulations, msp :> Seems like a fairly good resume for a first time playthrough. The damage done by snakes is impressive. With a frog wife and a snake king ring they're mighty fierce aren't they ? :>
You could have tried to bring regular Snakes along, too (not the swamp ones, they do poison damage only and that's fail). They don't have the benefit of no retaliation but they have lunge as well and their damage is physical, too. They'd have benefitted a lot from your wife and the ring.

I highly suggest you play through the game with a warrior next and on hard. And learn basic loss presevation and mana conservation techniques (Lina on lvl 19 kills my heart xD ). That'll give you a completely new approach to the game.
You'll think you're playing a different game entirely ! Have fun :>

[Helios]

Not bad, msp. I suggest following Vulture's advice. And you'll be surprised how much quicker you can beat the game knowing the locations, what enemies to generally expect, which troops are good vs. certain enemies, etc. I just learned last time through from Vulture how awesome Vampires and Ancient Vampires can be.