The Hero's Path

All armies on the map do not grow over time. Only in the place where units are killed, new ones begin to appear after a while, and their strength depends on the time elapsed. If you hesitate too long, very powerful armies may appear there.
Regarding the starting location, I would say that attacking the unicorns is a mistake many players make, as they send their army hoping to get a lot of resources, but in reality, only a small quest is completed there. It's better to clear out everyone you can before the unicorns and accumulate money that way.

Yes, I replayed the game slightly differently, and now it's easier. However, I had to spend some time in the starting town and accumulate a small amount of capital that generates constant income (50k in the bank).

Now I'm looking for peasants for the mine, haha. I can't seem to find any free ones, and the ones I found were long ago used as fodder. I wonder where they're hiding, those little rascals.
And, since we're talking about mines, is it worth looking for them at all? Maybe I should just sell them and forget about it? Will these ~30k gold be recouped soon?